REV.  HENRY  HARRIS  JESSUP  D.& 


GIFT  OF 
Miss  M.G.   Nutting 


The  Setting  of  the  Crescent 
and  the  Rising  of  the  Cross 


ts^4  \ 


KAMIL 


ABDUL  MESSIAH 


A  Syrian  Convert  from  Islam  to  Christianity 


THE   REV.  HENRY   HARRIS  JESSUP,  D.D. 

For  Forty-one  Years  a  Missionary  in  Syria 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE    WESTMINSTER    PRESS 

1898 


73  V  3*0 1 


Copyright,  1898, 

By  the  Trustees  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication 

and  Sabbath-School  Work. 


Kamil  Abdul  Messiah. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 


This  book  has  been  written  as  a  labor  of  love. 
Its  subject  was  one  of  nature's  noblemen. 

It  is  not  easy  for  a  Mohammedan  to  embrace 
Christianity,  but  Kamil's  history  shows  that 
when  he  is  converted  the  Moslem  becomes  a 
strong  and  vigorous  Christian.  The  element  of 
divine  truth  which  Mohammed  derived  from  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  which  runs  like  a 
vein  of  gold  through  that  extraordinary  book,, 
the  Koran,  teaching  the  existence  and  attributes 
of  God,  the  responsibility  of  man,  and  a  final 
judgment,  is  a  good  foundation  to  build  upon. 

But  to  reach  the  foundation  ;  to  sweep  away 
the  rubbish  of  childish  fables,  traditions,  and 
perversions  which  overlie  the  original  mono- 
theism of  the  Old  Testament,  and  disarm  the 
accumulated  prejudices  of  twelve  centuries — this 
is  the  work  of  the  divine  Spirit. 

5 

847702 


O  AUTHOR  S    PREFACE. 

Kamil  was  plainly  taught  by  the  Spirit,  who 
revealed  Christ  to  him  as  his  personal  Saviour. 
May  it  prove  to  be  true  that  he  was  but  the  first- 
fruits  of  a  mighty  harvest  to  be  gathered  for 
Christ  among  the  Mohammedans  of  the  Arab 

race ! 

Henry  H.  Jessup. 

Beirut,  Syria,  October,  1897. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  simple  story  of  the  brief  Christian  life  of 
Kamil  Aietany,  written  by  Rev.  Dr.  Jessup,  fur- 
nishes a  striking  illustration  of  the  power  of  the 
gospel  over  the  human  heart,  even  when  in- 
trenched in  the  most  inveterate  types  of  error. 

A  young  Moslem  visits  the  Jesuit  school  in 
Beirut  for  the  special  purpose  of  studying  the 
Greek  language.  He  there  gains  some  partial 
views  of  the  truth  of  the  New  Testament  which 
had  previously  been  withheld  from  him.  He 
secures  a  Bible,  but  this  is  taken  from  him  by  his 
father.  He  is  then  advised  by  his  Jesuit  instruct- 
ors to  secure  another,  and  to  disarm  his  father's 
prejudices  by  telling  him  that  he  desires  to  learn 
Christian  doctrines  only  that  he  may  know  how 
to  overthrow  them  in  the  interest  of  Islam.  At 
this  dishonest  suggestion  his  whole  moral  nature 
revolts  and  he  repairs  to  the  study  of  Dr.  Jessup. 

7 


ls~ 


8.  ,  ,  INTRODUCTION. 

At  this, point  a  new  history  began.  Not  dar- 
ing to  take  a  Biole  home  with  him,  he  resorted 
to  the  missionary's  study  day  after  day  and  there 
drank  deeply  of  the  precious  truth.  His  heart 
was  evidently  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Re- 
pairing, at  length,  to  the  training  school  under 
the  direction  of  Rev.  Mr.  Hardin,  in  the  Lebanon 
village  of  Suk-el-Gharb,  he  found  others  who 
were  in  sympathy  with  him.  Among  them  was 
a  young  Bedawi  from  the  interior  who  was 
equally  anxious  to  learn  the  truth  and  who  also 
gave  evidence  of  sincere  belief  in  the  gospel. 
What  was  more  important  to  Kamil's  future  was 
his  acquaintance  with  Rev.  Mr.  Cantine  of  the 
Reformed  Church  Mission  to  Arabia,  who  was 
spending  some  time  at  Suk-el-Gharb  in  order  to 
learn  the  special  dialect  of  the  Bedawin  Arabs. 
This  finally  led  to  his  joining  the  Arabian  Mission 
at  Aden.  Meanwhile,  he  had  not  hesitated  to 
avow  his  faith  in  the  New  Testament  teachings 
wherever  he  went,  but  he  did  so  with  so  much 
tact  and  so  manifest  a  spirit  of  love  that  he  es- 
caped that  violence  of  persecution  which  others 
would  have  soon  encountered.  The  struggle  be- 
tween him  and  his  father,  a  staunch  old  Moslem 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

of  great  apparent  sincerity  and  most  unbending 
and  fanatical  intolerance,  presents  a  touching 
chapter  in  the  young  man's  life.  Firmness 
in  his  adherence  to  the  supreme  truth  of  God, 
coupled  with  great  filial  reverence  and  affec- 
tion were  so  blended  that  the  father's  heart 
was  moved  with  manifest  love.  But  at  last, 
when  he  despaired  of  recalling  his  son  from 
his  supposed  errors,  the  bitterness  and  cruelty 
of  the  Moslem  faith  asserted  themselves  and 
gave  place  to  threats  of  death. 

Kamil  never  returned,  but  as  if  feeling  that 
his  time  was  possibly  short  he  devoted  himself 
with  most  untiring  assiduity  to  his  work,  labor- 
ing in  season  and  out  of  season,  whether  he  had 
an  audience  of  a  dozen  or  of  one  only.  He 
thoroughly  prepared  himself  by  a  study  of  the 
Koran  at  the  same  time  that  he  studied  ear- 
nestly the  New  Testament,  and  he  was  thus 
able,  like  the  early  apostles,  to  reason  with  his 
adversaries  out  of  their  own  scriptures.  Never 
since  the  example  of  the  apostle  Paul  has  there 
been  an  instance  in  which  greater  tact  was 
shown  in  disarming  prejudice  and  in  opening 
the  way  for  the  truth.       Passage   after  passage 


IO  INTRODUCTION. 

was  shown  to  the  incredulous  in  the  Koran 
itself  which  commended  the  character  of  Christ, 
which  quoted  various  passages  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament and  the  New,  which  instead  of  making 
it  a  crime  to  study  the  gospel,  recommended 
it,  and  the  relation  of  Christ  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment prophecy,  which  the  Koran  approved,  was 
shown  with  such  cogency  that  men  came  again 
and  again  to  listen. 

A  bright  and  shining  light  indeed  was  this 
young  missionary,  this  converted  Moslem, 
voyaging  from  port  to  port  along  the  Arabian 
coast,  and  finally  adopting  Busrah  as  the  par- 
ticular field  of  his  labor.  One  is  astonished  at 
the  favor  and  consideration  which  were  given 
him  even  by  Moslems,  and  that  in  the  most 
fanatical  of  all  lands.  But,  unfortunately,  he 
encountered  the  Turkish  soldiery  at  Busrah. 
With  them  nice  comparisons  of  Koran  and 
Gospel  had  little  place  or  appreciation.  Their 
creed  was  a  short  one,  religiously  and  politi- 
cally. Death  to  the  apostate  was  the  pithy 
conclusion  of  all  that  they  believed    or    knew. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  add  that  Kamil  died 
after  a  very  brief  and   distressing    illness,  sup- 


INTRODUCTION.  I  I 

posed  to  be  the  result  of  poison.  He  had 
survived  but  two  years  after  his  conversion. 
His  rooms  at  Busrah  were  closed  and  sealed, 
an  autopsy  was  refused,  he  was  buried,  contrary 
to  his  wishes,  according  to  Moslem  ceremony, 
and  the  place  of  his  burial  was  concealed. 
The  truth,  however,  which  he  had  proclaimed 
could  not  be  hidden,  and  in  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  scores  and  even  hundreds  of  staunch 
Moslems  the  seeds  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus  had  been   planted. 

The  story  of  this  young  man  can  not  fail  to 
be  regarded  as  a  valuable  accession  to  the 
missionary  literature  of  the  day.  First,  it 
proves  the  utter  falsity  of  the  oracular  asser- 
tion so  often  made  by  transient  travelers,  that 
no  Moslem  is  ever  converted  to  the  Christian 
faith.  We  have  never  known  clearer  evidence 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  work  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  in  connection  with  his  truth.  The 
transformation  in  Paul's  life  was  scarcely  clearer 
or  more  impressive. 

Second,  an  admirable  example  is  afforded  to 
missionaries  in  heathen  and  Moslem  lands,  and 
indeed  to  preachers  and  evangelists  at  home  as 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

well,  of  that  alert  and  ever  wise  tact  which 
finds  "the  line  of  least  resistance"  to  the  heart 
and  conscience  of  one's  adversary.  There  are 
those  who  stoutly  deny  the  necessity  of  learning 
anything  whatever  concerning  the  non-Christian 
religions,  who  deem  it  utter  folly  to  study  the 
Koran,  even  though  one  labors  in  Syria  or 
Persia,  and  equally  senseless  to  disturb  the 
musty  tomes  of  Buddhist  or  Hindu  lore  if 
one's  field  is  India ;  all  that  is  needed  is  the 
story  of  the  Cross.  This  young  Syrian  did 
not  thus  believe.  If  he  had  been  a  student  of 
the  Koran  before,  there  was  tenfold  necessity 
now,  for  it  was  upon  the  teachings  of  the 
Koran  and  the  entire  cult  of  Islam  that  he 
purposed  to  move  with  an  untiring  and  fearless 
conquest.  He  would  have  to  deal  with  men 
of  intelligence  and  intellectual  training,  and  if 
he  would  show  the  superiority  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ,  he  must  know  how  to  make  an  in- 
telligent comparison.  If  he  would  inculcate  the 
supreme  truth,  he  must  generously  recognize 
any  particles  of  truth  already  possessed.  Paul 
on  Mars  hill  before  a  heathen  audience  of 
Greeks,  Paul  before  Agrippa,  a  ruler  versed  in 


INTRODUCTION.  1 3 

the  doctrines  of  the    Jews,   was  not  more  wise 
and  tactful  than  Kamil. 

Third,  if  there  were  no  other  motive  for 
studying  this  little  sketch  by  Dr.  Jessup,  it  is 
thrice  valuable  as  a  personal  means  of  grace. 
Such  a  life  of  clear  faith  and  of  untiring  devotion 
is  tonic,  and  must  be  to  every  truly  Christian 
heart. 

Fourth,  the  life  of  Kamil  affords  another 
proof  that  the  gospel  has  a  universal  application 
to  the  hearts  of  men,  that  it  is  indeed  the 
wisdom  of  God  and  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation,  "  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the 
Gentile." 

F.  F.   Ellinwood. 

January  18,  iSg8. 


A  SKETCH  OF  THE- LIFE 

OF 

MIL  ABDUL  MESSIAH  EL  AIETANY 


On  the  morning  of  February  10,  1890,  a 
young  Syrian  called  at  my  study  in  Beirut.  His 
face  was  unusually  attractive  and  his  manner 
courteous  and  winning.  He  soon  handed  me 
an  Arabic  letter  he  had  written  and  taken  to  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Van  Dyck,  and  on  the  back  of  which 
Dr.  Van  Dyck  had  indorsed  his  recommenda- 
tions. 

I  read  the  letter  carefully.  The  writer  said 
in  substance  the  following  : 

"  After  kissing  your  revered  hands,  your 
humble  servant  begs  to  state,  my  name  is  Kamil 
Aietany,  of  Beirut.  I  have  studied  Turkish  and 
Arabic  in  the  military  schools  and  have  been  in 
government  service  in  Beirut.  For  thirty  days 
I  have  been   to  the  Jesuit  College  seeking  the 

15 


1 6  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

salvation,  of  [my  soul  and  to  follow  the  Christian 
faith,  according  to  clear  and  convincing  proofs. 
:  The^ 'proposed",  to  send  me  to  Alexandria,  but 
•  **  *  rriy  father  and  brothers  protested.  I  come  now 
to  you,  regarding  you  in  the  place  of  father  and 
brethren,  asking  your  counsel  as  you  are  well 
known  as  a  counselor  of  those  who  love  learn- 
ing, especially  if  they  love  learning  more  than 
father  and  family.      Do  with  me  as  you  please." 

Dr.  Van  Dyck  indorsed  on  this  letter : 
"  I   send   this  man  to   you.      I  have  advised 
him  to  go  to  Egypt  or  India. 

"  C.  V.  A.  Van  Dyck." 

In  reply  to  my  questions,  Kamil  stated  in  the 
most  frank  and  ingenuous  manner  that  one  day 
he  met  a  young  Maronite  priest  near  the  Beirut 
River,  and  on  telling  him  he  wished  to  learn 
French  was  advised  to  go  to  the  Jesuit  College. 
He  went  there  and  began  to  study.  One  of  the 
fathers  gave  him  an  Arabic  testament  which  he 
took  home.  His  father  saw  him  reading  it,  and, 
taking  it  from  him,  burned  it  in  the  kitchen  fire. 
The  next  day  one  of  the  Jesuit  teachers  told 
him  to  take  another  New  Testament  and  tell  his 
father  that  he  had  bought  it  in  order  to  write  a 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  I J 

tract  attacking  it ;  then  his  father  would  let  him 
keep  it.  "I  said  to  him,  '  What !  do  you  advise 
me  to  lie  to  my  own  father  ?  Never  ! '  And  I 
laid  down  the  book  and  came  away." 

Then  he  said  to  me  :  "  Sir,  I  want  to  know 
just  what  you  believe  about  Christ  and  the  way 
of  salvation.  I  am  not  at  rest.  I  find  nothing 
in  the  Koran  to  show  me  how  God  can  be  a 
just  God  and  yet  pardon  a  sinner.  I  know  I 
am  a  sinner  and  that  God  is  merciful,  but  he  is 
also  just." 

There  was  a  seriousness  in  his  tone  that 
showed  him  to  be  in  earnest,  and  his  language 
was  so  refined  that  I  felt  drawn  to  him  at  once. 
I  said,  "  My  dear  friend,  our  only  knowledge  of 
Christ  and  the  way  of  salvation  is  from  the 
word  of  God,  and  here  it  is  on  the  table — the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  You  can  read  for 
yourself.  I  will  help  you  all  I  can.  If  your 
father  objects  to  your  taking  a  Bible  home  you 
are  welcome  to  the  use  of  my  study  daily  as 
many  hours  as  you  wish.  I  am  engaged  at  the 
Press  every  forenoon  and  you  can  occupy  my 
study." 

Then     I    opened    the    New    Testament     and 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  1 9 

read  to  him  :  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor 
and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest."  "  Did  Mohammed  ever  venture  to  use 
such  language  as  that?"  I  asked.  He  said, 
"  No."  I  then  said,  "  Now,  when  you  read  the 
gospel  ask  yourself,  Who  was  Jesus  Christ  ? 
and  why  does  he  speak  as  if  he  were  God  ? 
He  says  he  will  give  us  rest  from  sin  and 
trouble  and  sorrow.  He  says,  'I  and  my 
Father  are  one.'  *  I,  if*  I  be  lifted  up  from  the 
earth,   will  draw  all  men  unto  me.'  " 

Then  I  read  other  passages — from  Acts  4 : 
12,  "Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other; 
for  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven 
given  among  men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved  ;  " 
and  from  Rom.  5:  1,  "Therefore,  being  justi- 
fied by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Kamil  listened  intently  to  every  word,  and 
asked  questions  as  if  hungering  and  thirsting 
for  the  truth.  Then  he  asked,  "  How  do  you 
pray?"  I  told  him  we  would  engage  in 
prayer,  asking  divine  grace  and  help  and  the 
guidance  of  the  Spirit.  He  knelt  by  my  side 
and   repeated    every  word    after   me.       At   the 


20  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

close  he  said,  "  I  never  heard  this  kind  of  a 
prayer  before.  It  is  talking  with  God.  We 
repeat  words  five  times  a  day,  but  we  have  no 
such  prayers  as  yours." 

I  then  laid  on  the  table  the  Bible,  the  Con- 
cordance, the  Bible  Handbook,  and  the  West- 
minster Assembly's  Shorter  Catechism  with 
proof  texts.  I  explained  to  him  that  this 
Catechism  was  in  men's  words,  but  was  concise 
and  would  give  him  an  idea  of  the  system  of 
Christian  belief,  but  he  need  not  accept  a  word 
of  it  unless  he  could  find  it  supported  by  the 
Scriptures.  I  also  urged  him  to  ask  divine  aid 
and  light  whenever  he  read  the  Bible,  and  then 
I  left  him  alone.  On  returning  at  noon  I 
found  that  he  had  prepared  a  series  of  ques- 
tions about  various  passages  of  Scripture  which 
he  had  been  reading.  These  I  explained  to 
him. 

On  the  evening  of  the  next  day  he  called 
and  remained  two  hours.  He  had  committed 
to  memory  the  first  ten  answers  of  the  Cate- 
chism. With  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  he  was 
delighted.  The  answer,  "  God  is  a  Spirit, 
infinite,  eternal,  and  unchangeable,  in  his  being, 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  21 

wisdom,  power,  holiness,  justice,  goodness,  and 
truth,"  charmed  him  ;  and  the  sixth  answer, — 
"  There  are  three  persons  in  the  Godhead  :  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and 
these  three  are  one  God,  the  same  in  substance, 
equal  in  power  and  glory," — he  said,  set  his 
mind  at  rest.  "  We  Mohammedans  think  that 
the  Christians  worship  three  Gods,"  said  he ; 
"  but  you  do  not ;  for  there  is  one  God  in  three 
persons :  the  Eternal  Father,  the  Eternal  Word, 
and  the  Eternal  Spirit.  That  is  all  clear." 
Then  we  read  the  Bible  together  for  two  hours 
and  he  listened  with  astonishment  and  delight. 
He  seized  upon  the  great  doctrine  of  the 
atoning  sacrifice  of  Christ  with  such  eagerness 
and  satisfaction  that  he  seemed  to  be  taught  of 
the  divine  Spirit  from  the  very  outset.  "This," 
he  said,  "  is  what  we  need.  The  Koran  does 
not  give  us  a  way  of  salvation.  It  leaves  us 
in  doubt  as  to  whether  God  will  forgive  our 
sins.  It  does  not  explain  how  he  can  do  so 
and  preserve  his  honor  and  justice.  Here  in 
the  gospel  it  is  plain.  Christ  bore  our  sins  ;  he 
died  in  our  stead  ;  he  died  to  save  us  from  dying. 
This  is  beautiful ;  it  is  just  what  I  want." 


22  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

He  then  spoke  of  the  Moslem  claim  that  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  have  been  tampered 
with  and  changed,  and  that  when  Mohammed 
commended  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  he 
referred  to  the  original  Scriptures  which  Chris- 
tians have  changed  to  prove  their  own  doc- 
trines. I  went  over  the  historical  proofs  of  the 
genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  the  fact  that  with  the  multiplicity  of 
Christian  sects  it  would  have  been  impossible 
after  the  days  of  Mohammed  to  change  the 
text  of  the  Scriptures,  as  there  was  no  cen- 
tral power  whose  authority  was  acknowleged 
by  all,  and  that  the  New  Testament  in  the 
hands  of  Protestants,  Greeks,  Roman  Catholics, 
Armenians,  and  Copts  is  the  same  every- 
where. Moreover,  that  the  earliest  manu- 
scripts of  the  Greek  text,  which  antedated 
Mohammed,  are  identical  with  that  accepted  by 
all  the  Christian  sects. 

In  our  conversation  I  alluded  to  the  jealous 
care  with  which  the  Jews  guarded  the  text  of 
the  Old  Testament,  counting  every  word  and 
letter  and  vowel  point.  Kamil  then  told  a 
Moslem    story    of   Mohammed    Ali,    pasha    of 


24  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

Egypt.  The  Coptic  patriarch,  in  conversation 
with  Mohammed  Ali,  consented  to  change  a 
verse  of  the  New  Testament  to  please  the  vice- 
roy ;  whereupon  a  little  Moslem  boy  standing 
by  told  the  pasha  that  God  would  wither  his 
hand  if  he  changed  a  single  dummeh  or  fetha 
(vowel)  or  a  single  word  in  the  Koran. 
Kamil  then  said  it  was  probably  in  that  spirit 
that  the  Jews  and  Christians  have  preserved 
God's  Word  intact. 

On  the  1 8th  of  February  he  spent  the  even- 
ing again  with  me  and  recited  to  the  twenty-first 
question  of  the  Catechism.  The  expression, 
"  The  only  Redeemer  of  God's  elect  is  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who,  being  the  eternal  Son 
of  God,  became  man,"  etc.,  was  especially  at- 
tractive to  him,  and  he  repeated  it  over  and 
over.  He  offered  prayer,  and  I  was  deeply 
affected  by  the  childlike  simplicity  of  his  con- 
fession of  sin  and  his  pleading  for  pardon  and 
acceptance  with  God  in   Christ. 

It  was  a  privilege  to  hear  his  exclamations 
of  joy  and  pleasure  as  he  read  one  chapter 
after  another  in  the  New  Testament.  It  was 
all  new   to  him  and   he  drank  it  in  as  if  he 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  2$ 

had  found  a   cool   crystal   spring  in  a  burning 
desert. 

Again  and  again  I  wondered  at  his  sincere 
and  frank  simplicity  of  character.  He  was  a 
true  Nathanael  "  in  whom  was  no  guile,"  and 
I  thought  to  myself  how  wonderful  that  a 
young  man  brought  up  in  a  Moslem  military 
school  and  surrounded  by  evil  influences  all 
his  days,  hearing  cursing  and  foul  language 
from  old  and  young,  should  be  so  pure  of  life 
and  so  spiritual  in  his  thoughts  and  language. 
The  Arabic  language  is  overloaded  with  reli- 
gious expressions.  The  name  of  God  is  in 
constant  use,  in  rising  and  sitting,  in  every  act 
and  motion,  and  on  all  occasions  men  say, 
"  In  the  name  of  Allah, "  "  If  Allah  will," 
"Praise  to  Allah,"  "  O  Allah,"  "I  swear  by 
the  life  of  Allah,"  "Allah  keep  you,"  "  The 
will  of  Allah  be  done,"  "Allah  destroy  your 
house,"  "  Allah  blight  your  life,"  "  Allah  curse 
your  father,"  or  "  your  grandfather."  It  is 
constant  blessing  or  cursing  from  morning 
until  night ;  and  in  addition  there  are  expres- 
sions too  vile  to  be  translated,  which  the 
people    use    thoughtlessly    and    their    children 


26  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

learn  from  them,  and  into  which,  even  when 
in  respectable  society,  they  unconsciously  fall. 
But  Kamil  seemed  to  have  been  kept  from 
these  habits,  or  to  have  broken  them  off  at 
once  and  forever ;  for  in  all  his  subsequent  life 
we  never  heard  of  his  using  improper  language 
on  any  occasion. 

His  docility  was  striking.  Day  after  day  he 
called  to  read  and  join  with  me  in  prayer,  and 
I  was  conscious  of  receiving  a  blessing  when- 
ever he  came.  He  studied  the  various  books 
carefully  and  took  a  little  pocket  Testament 
home  with  him. 

On  the  26th  he  had  learned  forty-two 
answers  from  the  Catechism  and  soon  finished 
it.  He  was  greatly  interested  in  the  famous 
Arabic  book,  "  The  Letter  of  Abdul  Messiah  ibn 
Ishaak  el  Kindy "  to  his  Moslem  friend,  the 
Hashimy,  in  the  days  of  the  caliph  Mamun, 
800  A.D.,  inviting  him  to  become  a  Christian. 
This  book  is  regarded  by  the  Moslems  as  so 
dangerous  to  their  faith  that  they  have  a  say- 
ing, "  The  house  of  any  Moslem  who  shall 
possess  the  book  shall  be  burned  and  also 
seventy  houses  around  it." 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  2J 

Kamil  took  special  comfort  in  the  Gospel  of 
John,  and,  when  he  returned  home,  would  sit 
up  late  at  night  reading  it.  One  morning  his 
father  listened  at  his  door  and  heard  him 
praying.  Opening  the  'door,  he  entered  and 
said,  "  My  son,  what  prayer  is  that  you  are 
using?  You  said,  'Our  Father.'  That  is 
wrong.  Have  we  not  prayers  enough  without 
your  using  these  prayers  of  the  Christians?" 
Kamil  told  me  that  he  said  to  his  father,  "  My 
dear  father,  I  was  doing  nothing  wrong.  God 
made  us  and  loved  us  as  you  love  me,  and  in 
this  sense  I  say,  'Our  Father.'  I  do  not  mean, 
as  the  Moslems  think,  that  God  was  married 
and  had  children  as  men  are  and  do.  God 
forbid.  It  is  only  to  express  the  tender  relation 
between  him  and  his  children."  But  his  father 
replied,  "  My  son,  we  have  prayers  that  are 
good  enough  without  going  to  the  Christians." 

On  Thursday,  March  13th,  Kamil  came  as 
usual.  He  said,  "  Last  night  my  father  kept 
me  reading  the  Arabic  Koran  until  midnight 
with  the  tajweed,  so  that  I  could  not  read  any 
other  book."  The  "  tajweed  "  is  a  sonorous 
intoning  of  the    words, in  reading,  almost  like 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  20, 

chanting,  of  which  the  Moslems  are  extremely 
fond,  and  is  not  unlike  the  intoning  of  the 
Greek  priests  and  Jewish  rabbis.  On  this 
occasion  I  again  urged  him  to  be  careful  not  to 
wound  the  feelings  of  his  aged  father.  "  Re- 
member that  he  is  your  father,"  said  I,  "that 
he  loves  you  ;  and  never  forget  the  respect  and 
affection  due  to  him."  "  I  never  will,"  he  re- 
plied ;  and  in  all  his  intercourse  and  subsequent 
correspondence  he  showed  his  love  and  rever- 
ence for  his  father,  who  is  a  venerable  sheikh, 
and  the  leader  in  several  circles  or  halakas 
of  the  Zikr.  *  He  is  looked  upon  as  a  most 
devout  Moslem. 


*  Zikr  is,  literally,  "remembering," — i.  e. ,  remembering  God, 
— and  consists  in  repeating  the  name  of  God, '  'Allah,' '  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  times.  It  is  either  "  jali,"  recited  aloud,  or 
"  khafi,"  recited  with  a  low  voice  or  mentally. 

As  a  religious  ceremony  or  act  of  devotion  it  is  performed  by 
the  various  religious  orders  of  Faqirs  or  Darweshes  all  over  the 
Mohammedan  world.  Almost  every  religious  Moslem  is  a 
member  of  one  of  these  erders,  and  their  meetings,  in  which 
they  stand  in  a  ring,  are  called  "  Halakat  ez  Zikr,"  or  circle  of 
remembrance  of  the  name  of  God. 

In  one  zikr  khafi  they  repeat  the  words,  "  God  the  Hearer," 
"God  the  Seer,"  "God  the  Knower,"  and  then  "la  ilaha," 
"there  is  no  God,"  with  the  exhalation  of  the  breath,  and 
with  each  inhalation  "ilia  'llahu,"  "excepting  God."  This 
style  of  zikr  is  a  most  exhausting  act,  being  performed  hundreds 


30  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

Kamil  had  now  been  for  a  month  under 
almost  daily  instruction,  and  had  decided  de- 
liberately to  profess  Christianity  and  devote  his 
life  to  preaching  Christ  to  the  Mohammedans. 
It  was  important  that  he  have  systematic  re- 
ligious instruction,  and  it  became  a  serious 
question  as  to  where  this  could  best  be  secured. 


and  even  thousands  of  times,  beginning  slowly  and  ending  with 
fearful  rapidity,  until  often  the  devotees  sink  exhausted  on  the 
floor. 

The  following,  used  by  the  Qadiriyah  devotees,  is  consid- 
ered the  most  devotional  and  spiritual  by  the  Moslem  mystics : 

1.  He  (God)  is  first.  He  is  last.  The  manifest  and  the 
hidden,  and  who  knoweth  all  things. 

2.  He  is  with  you  wheresoever  ye  be. 

3.  We  (God)  are  closer  to  man  than  his  neck-vein. 

4.  Whichever  way  ye  turn,  there  is  the  face  of  God. 

5.  God  encompasseth  all  things. 

6.  All  on  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  the  face  of  thy  God  shall 
abide  resplendent  with  majesty  and  glory. 

There  is  much  of  superstition  connected  with  this  devotional 
exercise.  The  Chishtiyah  order  believe  that  if  a  man  sits 
cross-legged  and  seizes  the  vein  called  Kaimas,  which  is  under 
the  leg,  with  his  toes,  it  will  give  peace  to  his  heart,  when  ac- 
companied by  a  repetition  of  the  "  Kalimah,"  "There  is  no 
deity  but  God." 

The  most  common  form  of  zikr  is  the  recital  of  the  ninety- 
nine  names  of  God  :  as  "  the  Merciful,  the  Great,  the  King,  the 
Mighty,  the  Compassionate,  the  Wise,  the  Strong,  the  Forgiver, 
the  Opener,"  etc. 

There  are  other  forms,  as  the  "  Tasbih,"  "Praise  be  to 
God";  "Tahmid,"    "Thanks,    or   Glory  be   to   God";    and 


KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH.  3 1 

About  ten  miles  from  Beirut,  on  a  spur  of  the 
Mount  Lebanon  range,  at  an  altitude  of  twenty- 
five  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  is  the  village  of 
Suk-el-Gharb,  where  is  the  American  Boarding 
School  for  Boys,  under  the  care  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.    Hardin.       As    Kamil    knew    the    Turkish 


"  Takbir,"  "God  is  Great."  Mohammed  said,  "Repeat  the 
'  Tasbih '  a  hundred  times,  and  a  thousand  virtues  shall  be  re- 
corded by  God  for  you,  ten  virtuous  deeds  for  each  repetition." 

Mr.  John  P.  Brown,  in  his  history  of  the  Darweshes  (Der- 
vishes:  Persian,  Dar,  house,  as  they  beg  from  house  to  house), 
says  that  they  are  divided  into  thirty-two  orders.  Tie  says  that 
in  one  of  their  ceremonies,  after  working  themselves  into  a 
religious  delirium,  "  they  burn  themselves  with  red-hot  irons, 
gloat  upon  them  tenderly,  lick  them,  bite  them,  hold  them  be- 
tween their  teeth,  and  end  by  cooling  them  in  their  mouths. 
Those  who  are  unable  to  procure  any  seize  with  fury  upon  the 
cutlasses  hanging  on  the  wall  and  stick  them  into  their  sides 
and  legs."  However  severely  they  may  be  burned  or  wounded, 
they  believe  that  their  sheikh  can  heal  them  by  breathing  on 
them  and  rubbing  them  with  saliva. 

Among  the  sayings  ascribed  to  Mohammed  are  the  follow- 
ing: "  Let  your  tongue  be  always  moist  in  the  remembrance  of 
God."  "There  are  ninety-nine  names  of  God;  whosoever 
counts  them  up  shall  enter  into  Paradise."  "  The  ejaculation, 
'  There  is  no  power  and  strength  but  in  God',  is  medicine  for 
ninety-nine  pains,  the  least  of  which  is  melancholy."  "No 
one  can  bring  a  better  deed  on  the  day  of  resurrection  (unless 
he  shall  have  said  the  like  or  added  to  it)  than  he  who  has 
recited,  '  Oh,  Holy  God.  Praise  be  to  Thee ',  one  hundred  times 
every  morning  and  evening." 

No  doubt  it  was  such  "  vain  repetitions ' '  as  these  against 
which  Christ  warned  his  disciples. 


32  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

language,  it  was  arranged  that  he  go  to  Suk 
and  teach  Turkish  in  the  boys'  school,  and  re- 
ceive instruction  in  the  Bible.  His  father  con- 
sented, and  on  March  20th  he  left  Beirut  for  his 
new  post.  His  progress  in  the  forty  days  of 
his  Bible  study  and  conversation  in  Beirut  had 
been  remarkable.  The  most  spiritual  portions 
of  the  New  Testament  had  become  familiar  to 
him.  Prayer  seemed  his  special  delight.  I 
have  never  met  a  person  who,  from  the  outset, 
seemed  so  peculiarly  taught  of  the  Spirit  of 
God. 

On  his  entering  the  school  at  Suk  as  teacher 
of  Turkish,  the  boys  of  the  Protestant  and 
Oriental  Christian  sects  looked  on  him  with 
suspicion.  They  said,  "  This  man  is  a  Beirut 
Mohammedan,  and  who  knows  but  he  is  im- 
moral and  will  corrupt  his  companions?"  But 
his  consistent  Christian  life  and  pure  language 
and  his  zeal  in  studying  the  Scriptures  soon 
overcame  all  prejudice,  and  he  was  chosen 
leader  in  the  religious  meetings  of  the  boys. 
From  that  time  his  course  was  onward  and 
upward.  It  is  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Hardin  and 
the  native  instructors  that  they  never  have  had 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  33 

a  more  truly  devout  and  pure  young  man  in 
the  school.  He  wrote  to  me  frequently  asking 
advice  and  telling  me  of  his  affairs.  On  April 
1 7th  he  wrote  of  his  beginning  to  teach  Turkish. 
In  this  letter  he  speaks  of  his  first  acquaintance 
with  the  Rev.  James  Cantine,  then  in  Suk 
studying  Arabic  in  preparation  for  missionary 
work  in  Arabia.  As  Kamil's  letter  is  a  char- 
acteristic Arabic  epistle,  I  will  translate  it  liter- 
ally, but  in  subsequent  letters,  for  brevity's  sake, 
I  shall  omit  the  flowery  introduction. 

"  Suk-el-Gharb  to  Beirut, 
"17,   Nisari  (April),  1890. 

"  To  his  excellency,  his  presence,  my  lord 
and  spiritual  father,  Dr.  Henry  Jessup  the 
revered,  may  God  prolong  his  continuance  in 
honor  and  divine  favor,   Amen. 

"  After  kissing  your  dear  hands  and  asking 
your  prayers  always,  I  would  state  that  in  the 
most  blessed  time  and  most  favored  hour  we 
were  honored  by  your  precious  letter.  We 
read  it  and  praised  the  Creator  (be  he  exalted) 
for  your  health  and  peace,  which  we  always  pray 
for  to  the  Lord  of  all  creatures.  In  this  letter 
you  told  us  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cantine,  who  is 
planning  to  go  to  Yemen,  if  God  wills.  Be  it 
3 


$6  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

known  to  you,  therefore,  that  already  a  strong 
affection  has  grown  up  between  us,  so  that  he  is 
now  giving  me  a  nightly  lesson  in  translating 
from  the  Arabic  Gospel  of  John  into  English,  in 
Mr.  Hardin's  house.  I  am  exceedingly  grateful 
to  you  for  making  me  acquainted  with  this 
cultivated  and  excellent  man.  He  has  over- 
whelmed me  with  his  kindness  and  many  favors. 
I  pray  God  to  prosper  him  according  to  his 
good  intentions.  I  have  received  the  kind 
advice  contained  in  your  letter,  which  is  '  Bless 
and  curse  not '  and  '  Bless  them  that  curse  you,' 
and  thank  you  for  it.  If  it  be  God's  will  I  will 
never,  from  this  time  on,  curse  my  enemies. 
Do  not  fail  to  give  me  good  religious  advice 
whenever  you  write. 

"  I  am  about  to  teach  Turkish,  for  I  feel  that 
if  one  has  mastered  any  branch  of  knowledge 
and  does  not  use  it  it  will  be  like  a  lost  treasure. 

"  The  Lord  bless  and  prosper  you,  and  bless 
you  in  health  and  the  peace  of  his  dear  Son,  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  Amen.  Do  not 
forget  me  in  your  prayers  for  me,  that  my  heart 
may  increase  in  light  upon  light. 

"  And  may  you  abide  in  peace. 

"  Y'r  servant,  penitent  for  his  sins, 

"  Kamil  Abdul  Messiah  (servant  of  Christ). 

"  P.  S. — Give  my  best  salaams  to  every  mem- 
ber of  your  household,  though  I  do  not  know 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  37 

their   names.     The    Lord    guard    and    preserve 
them  through  all  this  life.     Amen. 

"  Mr.  Hardin  and  Mr.  Cantine  salute  you. 
Our  brother  Jedaan  Owad,  the  Bedawi,  salutes 
you.  Written  in  haste,  please  excuse  the 
writing." 

During  the  next  three  months  he  continued 
his  studies  and  teaching.  As  the  summer  va- 
cation drew  near  he  was  anxious  for  some 
sphere  of  Christian  work  in  which  he  could  be 
useful  to  his  countrymen.  His  father  had 
written  to  him  expressing  great  love  for  him 
and  at  the  same  time  deep  anxiety  at  rumors  he 
had  heard  of  Kamil's  having  become  a  Chris- 
tian. One  of  his  letters  was  eloquent  and  most 
touching,  entreating  him  not  to  bring  down  his 
aged  father's  gray  hairs  with  sorrow  to  the 
grave.  Kamil  replied  affectionately,  but  saying 
that  he  was  trying  to  please  God  and  do  his 
will  and  fit  himself  for  usefulness. 

In  July  he  thought  that  he  would  better  not 
return  to  Beirut,  lest  some  of  the  lower  class 
of  fanatical  Moslems  might  take  his  life. 

The  young  Bedawi,  Jedaan,  whose  saluta- 
tions he  sent  me,  was  a  fellow-pupil  and  a  warm 


38  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

friend  of  Kamil's,  and  after  conference  and  prayer 
it  was  decided  that  they  should  go  together  on 
a  preaching  tour  for  the  summer  among  the 
Bedawin  Arab  tribes  in  the  vicinity  of  Hamath 
and  Hums,  along  the  river  Orontes. 

In  the  Summer  of  1887  Jedaan  had  come 
with  a  flock  of  sheep  from  the  plains  west  of 
Palmyra  to  Mount  Lebanon,  and  spent  several 
months  in  Suk-el-Gharb  selling  his  sheep.  He 
came  from  one  of  the  branches  of  the  powerful 
Anazy  tribe  of  nomadic  Arabs,  among  the 
thousands  of  which  tribe  there  was  hardly  a 
man  able  to  read  or  write.  One  day  Jedaan 
passed  a  mart  in  a  wayside  shop  reading.  He 
stopped  and  asked,  "  Can  a  Bedawi  learn  to 
read  ? "  The  man  said,  "  Yes  ;  any  one  can 
learn."  Jedaan  (Gideon)  became  greatly  inter- 
ested, and  the  man  sent  him  to  Mr.  Ibrahim 
Ahtiyeh,  a  Protestant  teacher  of  the  British 
Syrian  Schools  in  Beirut,  who  was  summering 
at  his  house  in  Suk.  Mr.  Ahtiyeh  gave  him  an 
Arabic  alphabet  card,  and  he  began  at  once  to 
learn  his  letters.  Day  after  day  he  studied  his 
alphabet  while  leading  his  sheep  to  pasture  on 
the    mountain   near  the   village,   and  was    con- 


4-0  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

stantly  asking  the  passers-by  the  name  and 
sound  of  the  Arabic  letters  and  simple  words. 
By  the  end  of  the  summer  he  was  able  to  read 
simple  sentences,  and  became  possessed  with 
the  desire  to  learn  more.  When  in  the  neigh- 
boring village  of  Aitath  one  day,  he  met  a 
Druze  sheikh  of  the  village  and  a  Mohammedan 
effendi  of  one  of  the  leading  families  of  Beirut, 
and  told  them  he  wished  to  learn  Arabic. 
They  advised  him  to  go  to  the  English  school 
in  Beirut ;  and  thus  unconsciously  these  two 
Syrian  gentlemen  put  him  in  the  way  of  finding 
not  only  a  knowledge  of  the  Arabic  language, 
but  of  the  word  of  God  and  the  way  of  life. 
He  sent  back  the  money  received  for  the  sheep, 
by  his  Bedawi  companion,  who  returned  to  join 
the  tribe  before  its  annual  migration  eastward 
down  the  Euphrates,  telling  him  to  inform  his 
uncle,  the  sheikh  of  the  tribe,  that  he  had  re- 
mained in  order  to  learn  reading,  writing,  and 
arithmetic,  so  as  to  be  useful  to  his  tribe  in  the 
future. 

Mrs.  Mentor  Mott,  to  whom  he  applied  for 
admission  to  her  boys'  school  in  Beirut,  received 
him  cordially,  and  he  became  an  inmate  of  the 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  41 

family  of  Mr.  Ibrahim  Ahtiyeh.  I  noticed  him 
in  the  Sunday-school  and  at  church,  and  by 
degrees  became  acquainted  with  him.  The 
Christian  religion  was  at  first  strange  and  mys- 
terious to  him.  The  Bedawin  Arabs  are  simple 
monotheists,  and,  though  regarded  by  the  gov- 
ernment as  Mohammedans,  have  no  religious 
sheikhs  or  imams,  no  places  of  worship,  and 
no  hours  of  prayer,  and  rarely  keep  the  fast 
of  Ramadan  or  make  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca. 
So  the  Moslems  say  :  "  There  are  three  classes 
who  have  no  religion,  muleteers,  Bedawin  Arabs, 
and  women,"  because  they  do  not  observe  the 
ritual  of  Islam. 

As  Jedaan  read  the  New  Testament  in 
Arabic,  and  attended  divine  service  and  the 
Sunday-school,  the  light  began  gradually  to 
break  into  his  mind.  But  it  was  not  until  he 
had  been  under  instruction  a  year  and  four 
months  that  he  finally  accepted  the  Christian 
faith  and  asked  for  baptism.  He  was  urged 
to  count  the  cost  and  consider  well  what  that 
step  involved.  But  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
deliberately,  and  was  baptized  February  21, 
1889.      His  faith  was  simple  and  clear,  and  he 


42  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

seemed  anxious  to  fit  himself  not  only  to  write 
letters  and  keep  accounts  for  his  tribe,  but  to 
teach  them  the  word  of  God  and  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ.  He  entered  the  school  in 
Suk-el-Gharb  in  October,  and  was  among  the 
first  to  welcome  Kamil  on  his  arrival.  They 
had  much  in  common,  and  were  soon  as  warmly 
attached  as  David  and  Jonathan.  It  was  Je- 
daan  who  proposed  that  they  go  on  their 
preaching  tour  to  all  the  Arab  encampments 
around  Hums  and  Hamath,  including  that  of 
his  own  tribe. 

On  July  28th  they  called  on  me  in  Aaleih, 
Mount  Lebanon,  about  two  miles  from  Suk,  en 
route  for  the  North.  They  said  they  had  come 
to  bid  me  good-by  and  ask  my  prayers  for  a 
blessing  on  their  journey.  After  I  had  offered 
prayer,  each  of  them  prayed  most  earnestly  for 
divine  aid  and  invoked  God's  blessing  on  me, 
on  all  my  family,  and  on  all  the  missionaries 
in  Syria.  It  was  very  affecting  to  hear  the 
voices  of  this  son  of  the  desert  and  this  young 
Mohammedan,  both  so  recently  born  into  the 
kingdom  of  grace,  praying  with  such  simple, 
intelligent  faith  and  loving  gratitude. 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  43 

They  went  on  to  Zahleh  and  Baalbec  and 
thence  through  the  northern  Bukaa  to  the  great 
plains  dotted  with  the  black  goats' -hair  tents 
of  the  Bedawin.  They  went  from  encampment 
to  encampment,  receiving  the  free  hospitality  of 
the  Arabs,  welcomed  everywhere.  They  read 
to  the  Arabs  from  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments, and  preached  salvation  through  Jesus 
Christ.  They  wrote  letters  for  the  sheikhs, 
helped  them  in  their  accounts,  and  urged  them 
to  give  up  their  predatory  raids  and  robberies 
and  to  live  in  the  fear  of  God.  One  sheikh 
said  :  "  This  may  do  for  dwellers  in  towns,  but 
if  Arabs  rob  us  we  must  punish  them  by 
robbing  them."  The  lex  talionis  has  been 
the  Arabs'  rule  since  the  days  of  their  father 
Ishmael. 

The  two  zealous  young  disciples  spent  two 
months  in  the  Bedawin  camps.  Kamil  said  on 
his  return  that  Jedaan  had  the  advantage  of 
him  in  knowing  the  pure  Bedawi  pronunciation 
and  idioms,  and  Jedaan  said  that  at  times  he 
felt  very  timid  lest  the  Arabs  injure  them  for 
speaking  of  Christ,  but  that  Kamil  was  bold  as 
a  lion. 


44  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

In  the  latter  part  of  September  they  returned 
and  gave  a  full  account  of  their  journey.  They 
had  been  in  every  camp  for  miles  east,  west, 
north,  and  south  of  Hamath,  and  had  read  the 
Scriptures  to  hundreds  of  Arabs,  sowing  good 
seed  that  may  yet  spring  up  to  the  glory  of 
God.  Kamil  brought  as  a  present  to  my 
family  a  beautiful  live  bird,  a  rail,  or  blue  heron, 
which  he  got  in  the  Bukaa  near  Baalbec.  He 
said  he  brought  it  as  a  thank-offering,  because 
he  had  been  permitted  to  accomplish  this 
journey  in  safety. 

After  completing  their  Bedawin  labors  they 
came  into  the  city  of  Hums  one  Saturday  to 
spend  the  Sabbath.  Taking  a  room  in  a  khan 
in  the  quarter  of  the  Greek  weavers,  they  called 
on  the  Protestant  pastor.  The  news  soon 
spread  through  the  city  that  a  young  Beirut 
Mohammedan  who  had  become  a  Christian  was 
in  the  khan.  Toward  evening  five  young 
Syrian  weavers  of  the  Greek  sect  called  upon 
them  in  the  khan,  curious  to  see  a  Moslem 
convert  to  Christianity.  After  the  usual  polite 
salutations  they  began  to  ply  Kamil  with  ques- 
tions   as    to    his    name,  and    whether    it    was 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  45 

actually  true  that  he  had  become  a  Christian. 
He  said,  "  Certainly."  They  asked,  "  How  did 
it  come  about?"  "  By  reading  God's  word 
and  by  prayer,"  he  replied.  "  Are  you  a 
member  of  the  Orthodox  Apostolic  Greek 
Church  ?  "  they  then  asked.  "  I  don't  find  the 
name  of  any  such  church  in  the  Bible,"  said 
he.  They  then  began  with  great  zeal  to  try 
to  convince  him  that  he  should  be  baptized  by 
a  Greek  priest  and  should  believe  in  prayers 
to  the  saints  and  to  the  Virgin,  and  in  the 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation.  Kamil  took  out 
his  Arabic  Testament  and  began  to  explain  to 
them  the  doctrine  of  free  salvation  and  of 
justification  by  faith,  with  the  most  tender 
earnestness.  Then  standing  up  he  offered 
prayer  for  them  all,  and  when  he  had  finished 
they  were  all  in  tears.  They  thanked  him  and 
went  away,  full  of  wonder  that  a  Moslem  con- 
vert should  have  to  show  them  the  way  of 
salvation  through  Christ  alone.  The  next 
morning  they  all  went  to  the  Protestant  church 
and  proposed  to  be  enrolled  as  Protestants. 
News  of  this  was  carried  to  the  Greek  bishop, 
Athanasius  Ahtullah.     This  bishop  is  one  of  the 


46  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

most  enlightened  of  the  Greek  clergy  in  Syria. 
When  a  lad,  he  attended  the  Protestant  common 
school  in  Suk,  and  he  has  opened  large  and 
well-conducted  schools  in  Hums,  with  1200 
pupils  ;  and  the  Bible  printed  at  the  American 
Press  is  used  as  a  text-book  in  them  all.  He 
sent  and  invited  Kamil  to  visit  him.  On 
Kamil's  arrival  in  the  large  reception  room, 
the  bishop  sent  out  all  the  priests  and 
servants  and  brought  Kamil  to  the  raised 
divan  at  the  upper  end  of  the  room,  and, 
seating  him  at  his  right  hand,  saluted  him  most 
cordially.  On  learning  his  family  name,  the 
bishop  said  :  "  I  know  of  your  family  and  am 
glad  you  have  become  a  Christian."  Then  he 
began  to  urge  him  to  enter  the  Orthodox  Greek 
Church,  and  used  the  usual  arguments  of  the 
traditional  oriental  Christians.  Kamil  asked, 
"  What  does  Your  Excellency  believe  about 
Christ  ?  Is  he  a  perfect  and  sufficient  Saviour  ?  " 
The  bishop  said,  "  Yes."  "  Do  you  believe,  as 
St.  Paul  says,  that,  '  being  justified  by  faith,  we 
have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  ?  '  "  "  Yes,"  replied  the  bishop.  "  Then," 
said   Kamil,    "we  are   brethren  in  belief;    and 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  47 

what  more  do  we  want?"  But  the  bishop 
urged  him  to  accept  trine  immersion  at  the 
hands  of  a  true  priest  of  the  Apostolic  Ortho- 
dox Greek  Church,  and  then  he  would  be  all 
right.  Then  Kamil,  turning  to  the  bishop,  said, 
"  Your  Excellency,  supposing  that  you  and  I 
were  traveling  west  from  Hums  and  came  to  the 
river  Orontes  ;  and  the  river  was  deep,  muddy, 
swift,  and  broad ;  and  there  was  neither  bridge 
nor  boat,  and  neither  of  us  could  swim.  Then 
if  I  should  say  to  you,  '  Bishop,  I  beg  you  to 
take  me  across.'  What  would  you  say  ?  You 
would  say,  '  Kamil  I  can  not  take  myself  across, 
and  how  can  I  take  you  ? '  And  there  we 
would  stand  helpless  and  despairing.  But  sup- 
pose that  just  then  we  should  see  a  huge  giant, 
a  strong,  tall  man,  coming  toward  us,  and  he 
should  take  you  by  the  arms  and  carry  you 
across.  Would  I  call  out,  '  Bishop,  come  and 
take  me  across  '  ?  No  ;  I  would  call  to  the 
strong  man.  Bishop,  there  is  only  one  strong 
Man — the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Is  not  he 
enough?"  Turning  to  Kamil,  the  bishop 
asked,  "  My  dear  friend,  how  long  have  you 
been  a  Christian  ?  "      "Seven  months,"  was  the 


48  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

reply.  "  Seven  months  !  And  you  are  teach- 
ing me  who  have  been  a  Christian  in  name  from 
my  infancy.  Kamil,  you  are  right.  If  you 
will  stay  here  and  teach  Turkish  in  my  school 
I  will  pay  you  a  higher  salary  than  you  can 
get  in  any  school  in  Syria."  "Your  Excel- 
lency," replied  Kamil,  "  I  thank  you  for  your 
offer  ;  but  I  care  not  for  money  or  salary.  God 
has  called  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
Mohammedans,  and  I  must  complete  my  studies 
and  be  about  my  work." 

I  shall  never  forget  the  truly  eloquent  and 
affecting  manner  in  which  he  described  this 
interview  with  the  bishop  of  Hums.  It  showed 
how  completely  he  was  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of  faith  and  Christian  love,  and  how  his  ex- 
quisite courtesy  and  sweetness  of  disposition 
disarmed  all  opposition. 

Kamil  and  Jedaan  returned  to  the  Suk  school 
and  resumed  their  studies.  Kamil's  religious 
influence  continued  undiminished  and  he  took 
part  heartily  in  all  religious  meetings.  Mr. 
Hardin  states  that  it  was  refreshing  to  see  how 
new  and  striking  were  his  views  and  applica- 
tions of  gospel  truth. 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  49 

In  October  he  wrote  to  me  of  his  welfare 
and  stated  that  the  Greek  priest  in  Suk  had 
offered  to  teach  him  Greek  in  order  to  help  him 
understand  the  New  Testament,  but  his  studies 
and  his  teaching  of  Turkish  left  him  no  time  to 
take  up  Greek.  Some  of  the  monks  of  Deir 
Shir,  a  papal  Greek  monastery  near  Suk,  made 
several  attempts  to  persuade  him  to  become  a 
Romanist,  but  he  finally  told  them  they  would 
better  preach  to  the  Moslems  than  attempt  to 
pervert  a  Christian  believer  to  Romish  tradition 
and  superstition. 

Early  in  January  he  wrote  to  me  again  asking 
for  certain  books,  and  closed  by  saying,  "We 
have  been  reading  Acts  8  :  36—40,  and  would 
ask,  'Who  shall  forbid  that   I  be  Baptized  ?'" 

Up  to  this  time  he  had  been  on  probation, 
and  it  was  thought  better  to  give  him  time  to 
take  the  step  deliberately.  But  now  there 
seemed  no  reason  for  further  delay.  He  was 
rooted  and  grounded  in  the  faith  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  he  was  baptized  January  15th,  re- 
joicing thus  to  take  his  stand  decidedly  for 
Christ,  his  Saviour. 

The  Rev.  James  Cantine  and  the  Rev.  Samuel 
4 


50  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

M.  Zwemer  had  been  spending  some  months  in 
Beirut  and  Suk-el-Gharb  studying  the  Arabic 
in  preparation  for  their  mission  to  Arabia.  The 
idea  of  this  mission  was  conceived  by  Prof. 
Lansing,  of  the  Theological  Seminary,  New 
Brunswick,  New  Jersey.  Having  been  born  in 
Egypt,  and  being  a  fine  Arabic  scholar,  he  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  Moham- 
medans of  Arabia.  The  Rev.  Keith  Falconer 
had  fallen  at  his  post  soon  after  beginning  his 
work  in  Aden,  and  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland 
was  keeping  up  the  work  there,  but  Dr.  Lansing 
planned  entering  Arabia  from  all  sides  and  offer- 
ing a  free  gospel  and  a  divine  Saviour  to  its 
millions  of  people.  In  the  closing  months  of 
1890  Messrs.  Cantine  and  Zwemer  left  Beirut 
for  Aden,  and  soon  wrote  requesting  Kamil  to 
join  them  there ;  so,  without  delay,  after  his 
baptism,  he  came  to  Beirut,  and,  making  the 
necessary  preparations,,  sailed  for  Port  Said,  the 
northern  terminus  of  the  Suez  Canal,  arriving 
in  Aden  February  7,  1891.  He  was  heartily 
welcomed  by  the  missionaries  and  began  his 
work  at  once  among  the  Arabs.  Aden  is  the 
seaport     of     southern     Arabia,     and     caravans 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  5  I 

of  Arabs  from  the  mountains  north  toward 
Sanaa  and  east  toward  Hadramout  are  con- 
stantly coming  in,  bringing  coffee,  dates,  spices, 
and  wool,  and  buying  European  goods.  It  was 
to  these  caravans  that  the  missionaries  recom- 
mended  Kamil    to    give    his   attention,  and    he 


Thk  Port  of  Aden. 

did  so  day  after  day.  He  often  had  from  fifty 
to  one  hundred  Arabians  seated  around  him 
listening  to  the  word  of  God. 

On  March  18,  1891,  he  made  his  first  mis- 
sionary journey  with  Mr.  Zwemer  along  the 
southern  coast  of  Arabia.  He  carefully  wrote 
a  journal  in  Arabic,  which  I  received  May  20th. 


52  KAMIL    ABDUL     MESSIAH. 

The  following  is  the  substance  of  the  journal,  in 
his  own  language  : 

"  Our  blessed  journey  to  Bender-el -Makullah. 
'And  they  departed,  and  went  through  the 
towns,  preaching  the  gospel,  and  healing  every- 
where,' Luke  9  :  6.  After  trusting  in  God  and 
asking  the  aid  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  I  set  out 
with  my  beloved  and  zealous  brother,  Mr. 
Zwemer,  from  Aden  on  Saturday,  March  18, 
1 89 1,  at  half-past  four  o'clock  in  the  night 
[10.30  P.  M.].  We  sailed  in  a  sloop  sixty  feet 
in  length,  intending  to  visit  Bender-el-Makullah. 
The  name  of  the  ship  was  '  Mubarakat '  [the 
blessed] ,  and  the  captain's  name  was  Es  Sayyid 
Omr  Najy.  The  ship  had  one  mast,  and  it  had 
on  board,  including  passengers  and  sailors, 
twenty-five  souls,  and  was  bound  to  Belhaf,  east 
of  Aden. 

''The  next  day,  March  19th,  owing  to  severe 
seasickness,  we  were  unable  to  speak  to  any  one. 
On  the  20th  we  began  to  make  the  acquaintance 
of  the  sailors,  the  captain,  and  the  passengers, 
and  came  to  be  on  friendly  terms  with  them  all, 
and  tried  to  draw  their  hearts  to  us  personally. 
On  the  2 1st  love  sprang  up  in  their  hearts  and 
they  listened  gladly.  We  then  spoke  to  them 
kindly  and  freely  about  the  gospel,  in  such  a 
way  as  to  prevent  their  being  shocked  or  re- 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  53 

pelled,  so  that  they  bought  two  Bibles.  We 
showed  the  divine  authority  and  inspiration  of 
the  gospel,  bringing  proofs  from  the  Koran,  and 
they  bought  the  books  with  all  joy.  In  the 
sea  [Arabic  idiom  for  during]  of  that  day  we 
stopped  at  the  little  village  of  Shefra,  where  there 
is  good  water,  and  then  sailed  on  to  the  east, 
and,  as  the  wind  was  contrary,  the  ship  anchored 
at  night  and  sailed  at  dawn.  On  Wednesday, 
the  2  2d,  I  read  to  the  men  a  portion,  using  the 
tajweed,  [or  loud  musical  intoning  with  which 
the  Moslems  read  the  Koran].  They  listened 
with  rapt  attention  and  delight,  and  whenever  I 
paused  they  shouted  to  me  to  go  on.  At  even- 
ing we  passed  Azam.  On  Thursday,  the  23d,  I 
took  a  portion  of  the  sailors,  and  Mr.  Zwemer 
the  rest,  and  we  spoke  to  them  of  the  plan  of 
salvation,  of  the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment prophets  of  the  coming  of  our  Saviour  to 
the  world,  and  we  told  them  plainly  that  we  are 
Christians  and  worship  God  (be  he  praised  and 
exalted  !),  the  Creator  of  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,  until  it  was  made  clear  to  them  that  Chris- 
tians are  not  infidels  (kafirs)  if  they  thus  believe. 
[It  is  the  custom  in  all  this  region  to  call  all 
others  than  Mohammedans  kafirs.]  At  the  end 
of  every  sentence  they  responded,  '  Zein,  zein, 
wallah  zein  ;  laisoo  b'kuffar,' — *  Very  fine  ;  by  the 
name  of  Allah,  fine  ;  they  are  not  kafirs.'     They 


54 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 


greatly  delighted  in  our  teaching,  and  we  set  apart 
a  special  time  daily  to  instruct  them  about  the 
way  of  salvation.  As  we  sailed  along  the  coast 
we  saw  numerous  mountains  to  the  north  far 
greener  than  the  mountains  of  Aden.  We  asked 
whether  there  were  men  living  on  them,  and  the 
reply  was,  '  Yes  ;  they  are  like  the  sands  which 


Trrrrrrntj  |  i 


Aden  Custom  House  and  Landing  Place. 


can  not  be  counted  or  numbered,  and  they  are 
ruled  by  many  sultans  who  are  at  perpetual  war, 
and  peace  is  only  secured  in  the  end  by  the  aid 
of  the  kadis  [judges].  The  water  is  chiefly  rain- 
water, and  fountains  of  living  water  are  scarce.' 
At  evening  we  passed  Mukatein,  and  on  Friday, 
the  23d,  we  were  at  Hur,  a  little  hamlet,  and  saw 
a  mountain   white   as    snow,   called    '  Zooaij    al 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  55 

Akezim,'  in  which  men  are  said  to  be  as  plentiful 
as  locusts.  In  front  of  this  mountain  is  a  litoral 
called  '  Jurd  Takhumah.'  We  then  saw  Sheikha, 
Harba,  Rida,  and.  Jaal,  names  of  plains  thinly 
inhabited.  On  Saturday,  the  25th,  we  were  at 
Arkah,  the  town  of  sheikh  Abdurahman  el 
Badas  and  the  site  of  his  tomb.  The  Arabs  re- 
gard him  as  one  of  the  holy  saints.  Two  of  the 
people  came  to  us  and  we  asked  them,  '  Do  you 
know  the  Injeel  [the  gospel],  and  have  you 
heard  about  the  Christ  ?  '  They  replied,  '  We 
have  never  heard  of  the  Christ,  nor  do  we  know 
what  the  gospel  is.'  We  then  told  them  briefly 
about  Christ  and  the  gospel  and  salvation  and 
many  other  things,  and  they  listened  with  deep 
interest,  so  that  we  begged  the  captain  to  stop 
longer,  but  he  refused  for  two  reasons  :  firstly,  for 
want  of  time,  and,  secondly,  as  the  harbor  is  un- 
safe. The  town  has  a  well  of  good  water  and  a 
little  way  from  it  is  an  ancient  fortress.  On 
Sunday,  the  26th,  we  were  at  Ras  Hoora  and 
Sufan.  The  Bedawin  sing  a  song  about  these 
places  and  Ras  Arka  as  follows  : 

•  No  grass  in  Ras  Hoora,  in  Sufan  not  a  taint, 
But  Ras  Arka  would  make  of  a  rebel  a  saint.' 

That  is,  Ras  Hoora  and  Sufan  are  of  no  profit, 
though  they  have  a  market  and  many  people, 
but  Ras  Arka  is  safe  and  its  people  are  honest. 


$6  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

"  On  Sunday  we  also  reached  Ghubt-el-Ain, 
and  on  Monday,  the  27th,  Belhaf,  the  destination 
of  our  ship  and  passengers.  We  bade  a  very 
affectionate  good-by  to  the  sailors  and  captain, 
and  sold  them  six  Arabic  Testaments,  they  pay- 
ing the  price. 

"We  then  entered  Belhaf,  a  little  village,  a 
market  for  goods  landed  here  for  the  Arabs  in 
the  interior.  It  has  neither  water  nor  vegetation, 
indeed  nothing  but  a  fortress  and  houses  of  straw. 
The  people  are  like  stones.  They  do  not  like 
strangers  and  will  not  give  them  even  water, 
except  for  money.  While  we  were  there  four 
sultans  of  the  Bedawin  were  in  town.  Our 
brother  Zwemer  gave  medicine  to  ten  sick  people 
and  asked  for  a  little  coffee  or  milk.  But  why 
speak  to  one  who  is  lifeless  ?  I  then  told  the 
sultans  about  the  Bedawin  Arabs  in  Syria ;  how 
the  very  poor  among  them  entertain  every 
stranger  that  comes,  and  how  they  give  him 
food  and  drink  and  the  best  they  have,  with 
other  remarks  intended  to  appeal  to  their  self- 
respect  and  their  sense  of  shame.  But  alas  !  it 
all  went  for  nothing,  so  that  one  of  the  sultans 
who  was  sick  sent  for  Mr.  Zwemer,  and  when 
Mr.  Zwemer  asked  him  for  a  little  leben  [curdled 
milk],  promising  to  give  him  medicine  without 
charge,  as  he  did  to  the  others,  the  sultan  said 
he  would  do  without  both  healing  and  medicine 


KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH.  57 

sooner  than  give  one  piaster's  worth  of  leben. 
(Just  think  of  that,  sir  !)  We  found  ourselves 
here  shut  up  like  Peter  and  Paul  in  prison,  and 
although  we  preached  to  them  of  the  salvation 
through  Christ  and  offered  to  sell  them  books, 
who  among  such  a  people  would  listen  to  us  ? 
I  presented  one  Testament  to  the  owner  of  the 
house  where  we  lodged,  and  on  the  morning  of 
Tuesday,  March  28th,  we  took  passage  in  a  little 
boat  nine  yards  long.  It  had  three  captains  :  one 
for  the  rudder,  one  for  the  sail,  and  one  to  bail 
out  the  water,  which  kept  coming  in  from  the 
sea.  We  set  sail  after  offering  prayer  to  God, 
but  our  sailors  were  like  deaf-and-dumb  men 
with  no  understanding.  For  instance,  they  in- 
sisted that  we  transfer  our  baggage  and  clothing 
to  another  boat,  as  it  was  too  heavy  for  the  ship 
to  carry,  though  after  a  hot  contest  they  gave 
up  the  demand  and  submitted.  But  after  we 
had  sailed  a  little  way,  lo  !  the  ship  drew  near 
the  land,  and  two  of  the  captains  went  ashore 
and  brought  huge  stones  and  put  them  in  for 
ballast,  as  the  cargo  was  too  light.  (Just  think 
of  it,  sir  !)  After  much  tribulation  we  reached 
Beer  Ali,  a  little  village  with  excellent  water  and 
a  people  somewhat  better  than  those  of  Belhaf, 
for  they  helped  us  in  preparing  food  and  offered 
us  a  place  to  sleep,  but  with  many  thanks  we 
declined  and  slept  in  the  boat.     There  is  a  for- 


58  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

tress  near  here  and  the  people  say  there  are  in- 
scriptions. We  asked  whether  they  were  Arabic, 
English,  or  French.  They  said  neither,  but  in 
the  language  of  the  Franks,  and  thus  displayed 
their  great  knowledge.  The  castle  is  lofty,  but 
was  too  distant  for  us  to  visit  it.  At  dawn  on 
the  29th  we  left  Beer  Ali  and  in  the  morning 
saw  Mejdaha,  a  little  village  of  ten  houses  and 
a  spring  of  water.  On  our  course  we  saw 
numerous  islands,  and  on  rounding  them  the 
winds  rose  and  the  waves  dashed  over  us  on 
every  side,  the  boat  pitching  and  rolling  until 
we  and  our  books  and  clothing  and  the  sail  and 
the  sailors  were  drenched.  We  shivered  in  the 
biting  cold,  and  four  or  six  times  death  stared  us 
in  the  face.  We  were  in  a  sad  state  and  pro- 
tected ourselves  with  prayer  and  singing  praises, 
and  in  supplication  to  God  that  he  would  look 
upon  us  in  compassion.  My  brother,  Mr. 
Zwemer,  comforted  me  by  recalling  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ,  and  I  comforted  him  with  the 
prisons  and  the  sufferings  of  the  apostles.  At 
length  we  all  agreed  to  run  ashore  and  land 
until  the  storm  should  abate  and  the  waves  sub- 
side. So  after  much  toil  and  tribulation  we 
drew  the  boat  up  on  the  beach,  and,  owing  to 
severe  hunger,  I  began  to  prepare  some  food. 
Just  then  there  came  up  an  armed  Bedawi  with 
a  long  spear.     He  saluted  us  and  we  responded. 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  59 

He  then  said,  '  You  would  better  not  stop  in 
this  wilderness  ;  it  is  full  of  godless  Bedawin, 
who  will  kill  you  or  rob  you  of  everything.' 
We  replied,  '  We  fear  nothing,  for  God  is  with 
us  and  we  are  his  disciples  ;  and  "  if  God  be  for 
us,  who  can  be  against  us  ?  "  '  He  said  nothing 
and  went  on  his  way,  but  after  five  minutes  re- 
turned with  another  Bedawi  armed  to  the  teeth. 
They  saluted  us  and  we  answered  with  all  cour- 
tesy and  respect.  They  demanded  coffee  as  rent 
of  the  land  we  stood  on.  We  told  them,  '  We 
have  no  coffee  ;  but  if  you  wish  dates  you  are 
most  welcome.'  They  refused  and  demanded 
coffee  five  or  six  times,  until  finally  they  said 
they  would  take  money  instead.  We  refused  to 
give  money.  Just  then  a  crowd  of  Bedawin 
women  and  children  came  down  upon  us.  Alas  ! 
how  can  we  answer  these  robbers  ?  How  can 
we  hold  back  this  rabble  of  women  and  children 
who  are  clutching  at  our  clothing  and  food  ? 
Sometimes  a  child  seized  one  thing  and  a 
woman  another,  and  four  or  five  at  once  reached 
out  their  hands.  The  robbers  kept  talking  and 
we  answering,  until  Mr.  Zwemer  took  his  stand 
by  one  part  of  our  things  and  I  by  another.  I 
then  called  out,  '  We  have  no  coffee  and  we  will 
not  give  money ;  but  look  out  for  yourselves, 
for  I  have  something  here  in  my  heart  which 
will  preserve  me,  though  you  were  as  many  as 


60  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

the  sands  on  the  seashore,  for  my  conscience 
rests  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  Khowaja 
who  is  with  me  has  a  little  thing  which  can  kill 
five  or  six  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.'  But  it 
was  as  though  I  was  talking  to  dead  men,  for 
they  seized  the  boat  and  refused  to  let  us  launch 
it  again.  We  then  demanded  their  help  at 
once,  and  we  all  took  hold  and  drew  the  boat 
down  to  the  water  with  all  our  goods.  Mr. 
Zwemer  then  went  up  to  the  chief  robber  and 
cut  off  a  little  bead  which  was  hanging  from  his 
neck,  as  a  keepsake,  and  the  man  never  uttered 
a  w^ord.  Mr.  Zwemer  then  gave  him  a  cup  as  a 
token  of  remembrance  and  gave  them  all  medi- 
cine for  their  ailments.  We  then  took  their 
spears  and  stuck  their  shafts  into  the  ground 
and  stood,  with  the  Bedawin  around  us.  I  then 
offered  prayer  to  God  that  he  would  enlighten 
their  hearts  and  reform  their  lives  and  guide  and 
save  them.  I  prayed  nearly  half  an  hour,  pray- 
ing to  God  and  then  exhorting  them,  and  I  will 
venture  to  say  with  all  joy  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
spoke,  not  I,  for  my  eyes  and  my  body  and  all 
my  members  were  transfixed  toward  heaven,  and 
from  the  very  depths  of  my  heart  I  prayed  and 
preached.  And  I  closed  my  prayer  with  the 
words  '  In  the  name  and  for  the  honor  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  our  Redeemer  and  our 
Saviour.'     And  the  whole  company  responded, 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  6 1 

'Amen  and  Amen  '  ;  and  they  exclaimed,  '  Never 
in  all  our  lives  will  we  cut  off  the  roads,  rob 
on  the  highway  again,  or  speak  harshly  to  a 
stranger.'  We  then  bade  them  a  loving  farewell 
and  they  said,  '  Ma-es-Salameh,' — '  Go  in  peace  ; 
may  God  preserve  you.'  We  thanked  them 
kindly  and  sailed  on  our  way.  But  all  this  time 
our  captain  and  sailors  were  like  blocks  of  wood  ; 
they  neither  spoke  nor  moved.  But  when  we 
sailed  away  a  great  fear  of  us  came  over  them, 
and  they  said,  '  Sirs,  if  anything  happens  to  you 
we  will  give  our  lives  for  you.'  We  thanked 
them  most  cordially  for  this  wonderful  zeal, 
which  had  just  no  meaning  at  all.  Mr.  Zwemer 
said  to  me  as  we  sailed  away  that  he  was  filled 
with  astonishment  and  joy  at  the  prayer  offered 
by  the  spears  among  the  Bedawin. 

"  The  wind  continued  to  increase  and  we  were 
truly  water  in  water,  and  at*  length  the  captain 
said  we  would  better  go  back  to  Beer  Ali,  and 
the  next  day  set  sail  for  El  Makullah.  We  con- 
sented, and  turning  to  Mr.  Zwemer  I  said,  '  My 
brother,  God  no  doubt  intends  some  greater 
things  for  us  and  has  sent  his  Spirit  to  turn  us 
back  to  his  work.'  He  said  he  had  no  doubt  of 
that.  At  length  after  great  weariness  and  cold, 
hunger  and  thirst,  we  returned  to  Beer  Ali. 
There  we  found  a  large  vessel  bound  for  El 
Makullah  and  decided  that  it  would  be  better  to 


62  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

take  passage  in  it.  So  I  went  to  the  ship  with 
our  first  captain,  Mr.  Zwemer  enjoining  him  to 
help  me  in  getting  moderate  rates  for  our  pass- 
age. We  went  on  board  and  met  the  captain, 
and  we  began  to  arrange  about  the  fare,  but  our 
friend,  the  first  captain,  being  offered  dates  to 
eat,  forgot  all  about  helping  me  and  gave  himself 
up  to  eating  dates,  saying,  '  Every  goat  is  hung 
up  by  his  own  leg,' — i.  e.f  every  man  for  himself; 
and  when  I  asked  him  to  help  me  in  the  bar- 
gaining, he  replied  by  taking  more  dates  and 
filling  his  mouth. 

"At  length,  on  Wednesday  evening,  April  1st, 
we  set  sail.  We  at  once  made  friends  with  the 
captain  and  his  sailors  and  company  owing  to 
their  courtesy  and  good  manners.  They  were 
from  Muscat  and  bound  to  that  city,  and  they 
helped  us  in  every  way  and  seemed  fond  of  us. 
They  were  forty  in  number,  and  when  the  morn- 
ing of  the  2d  dawned  all  who  were  sick  or  ail- 
ing thronged  around  Mr.  Zwemer,  and  all  who 
wanted  books  thronged  around  me,  especially 
when  I  had  proved  to  them  from  the  Koran 
that  the  Tourah  and  the  Injeel  [Old  and  New 
Testaments]  are  the  books  of  God.  They 
accepted  the  proofs  and  agreed  that  they  were 
indeed  from  God,  and  in  two  days  they  had 
purchased  thirty  Bibles  and  Testaments.  I 
spoke    to    them    openly    of    the    salvation    in 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  63 

Christ,  and  they  listened  attentively,  saying  to 
one  another,  '  Of  a  truth  these  are  good  men 
and  their  doctrine  is  light  upon  light,'  insomuch 
that  we  were  astonished  at  their  ready  acquies- 
cence in  our  teaching,  and  we  thanked  God  for 
this  joyous  work.  When  we  prayed  at  morning 
and  evening  and  at  our  meals,  we  spoke  in  a 
loud  voice  so  that  all  could  hear,  and  they 
listened  in  silence  and  were  filled  with  wonder. 

"  Before  prayer  I  always  read  a  portion  from 
the  Gospels  in  the  tajweed  tone  used  in  reading 
the  Koran.  This  caused  them  great  delight  and 
drew  them  nearer  and  nearer  to  us.  From  that 
day  love  for  us  was  planted  in  their  hearts. 
They  loved  us  and  we  loved  them  exceedingly. 
They  continually  brought  us  of  their  food  and 
drink  and  whatever  else  we  needed  or  asked  for, 
and  they  were  not  a  little  civilized  in  their  habits 
and  conduct. 

"  On  Friday,  April  3d,  two  of  them  came  to 
me  and  asked  me  to  write  out  for  them  prayers 
for  morning  and  evening  and  for  use  before  eat- 
ing. These  prayers  contained  a  petition  that 
God  would  enlighten  their  hearts,  that  they 
might  know  him  truly  more  and  more,  that  he 
would  send  his  Holy  Spirit,  his  grace,  and  his 
word,  and  implant  them  in  their  hearts.  I  also 
wrote  in  them  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  various 
spiritual    expressions,     closing     by    asking    an 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  65 

answer  from  God  in  honor  of  the  Son  of  his 
love,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  These  were 
written  in  a  style  which  the  Moslems  admire, 
and  when  I  read  them  to  them  they  rejoiced 
exceedingly  and  thanked  me  for  writing  them.  I 
then  offered  prayer  to  God,  praising  him  for  his 
mercies  and  for  helping  me  in  proclaiming  the 
glad  tidings  of  salvation.  Then  I  recalled  the 
word  which  I  spoke  to  Mr.  Zwemer,  about  our 
being  turned  back  for  a  greater  work,  for  so  it 
was,  yea  even  greater  than  we  had  supposed. 
To  God  be  the  thanks  and  the  praise. 

"  On  Saturday  morning,  April  4th,  we  reached 
Bender-el-Makullah,  our  destination.  We  bade 
farewell  to  the  captain  and  his  company  with  all 
affection,  and  they  reverently  entreated  us  to 
come  to  their  city  of  Muscat,  and  we  promised 
to  come  if  the  Spirit  should  permit.  They  were 
deeply  affected  and  so  were  we,  and  at  our  part- 
ing we  bade  them  God-speed  with  all  joy  in  our 
hearts. 

"  On  landing  we  went  to  the  sultan  and  he  gave 
us  a  house  for  a  lodging  during  our  stay.  At 
noon  the  people  began  to  come  to  us.  I  told 
them  that  Mr.  Zwemer  would  give  them  medi- 
cine freely  for  the  love  of  God,  and  that  I  would 
sell  them  books  at  a  very  low  rate.  The  sick 
then  came  to  Mr.  Zwemer,  and  he  gave  them 
medicine  and  I  sold  books. 
5 


66  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

"  On  Sunday,  April  5th,  a  company  of  boys 
came  and  took  books,  and  when  they  went  to 
their  teacher  he  was  greatly  enraged,  telling  them 
to  burn  the  books  and  buy  no  more.  When  the 
news  reached  me  I  sent  for  the  teacher,  and  he 
came,  bringing  with  him  a  second  teacher  and  a 
third  man.  When  they  were  seated  I  saluted 
them  cordially  and  said,  '  Oh,  honored  teachers, 
I  have  called  you  to  take  counsel  and  ask  you 
about  a  very  important  matter  and  to  tell  you 
something  new.  If  you  find  it  to  be  true,  help 
me  to  carry  it  out ;  if  it  be  not  true,  teach  me  a 
better  way,  and  if  it  be  a  true  way,  I  will  be 
very  much  obliged  to  you.'  They  replied, 
'  Speak,  and  we  are  your  hearers.'  I  thanked 
them  for  their  kindness  and  in  the  first  place 
read  to  them  from  the  Koran  in  the  tone  of  the 
tajweed,  and  they  were  very  much  astonished  at 
my  knowing  the  tajweed  and  seemed  delighted 
with  my  reading.  When  I  finished  I  said  to 
them,  '  My  father,  my  grandfather,  and  my  great- 
grandfather were  all  of  them  Moslems.  My 
father  performed  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  three 
times  and  my  brothers  have  all  been  on  the 
pilgrimage,  and  I  am  not  a  kafir.  The  differ- 
ence between  me  and  them  is  that  I  read  the 
Tourah  and  the  Injeel  and  believe  in  all  that 
they  say,  and  walk  according  to  their  divine 
commandments.     For  the  Koran  commands  me 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  6? 

to  read  them  with  reverence  and  regard,  and 
confirms  their  inspiration,  and  if  I  do  not  read 
them  I  violate  the  command  of  God.  Be  he 
praised  and  exalted.'  I  then  opened  the  Koran 
in  proof  of  my  words,  and  read  to  them  four 
passages  which  enforce  the  reading  of  the  Bible, 
as  follows  : 

"  Sura  5,  Maida,  v.  72  :  ■  Oh,  people  of  the 
Book,  ye  rest  on  nought  until  you  stand  fast  by 
the  Law  and  the  Gospel  and  what  is  revealed  to 
your  Lord.' 

"  Sura  7,  Inam,  v.  1 56  :  '  Who  follows  the 
apostles,  the  illiterate  prophet,  whom  they  find 
written  down  with  them  in  the  Law  (Tourah) 
and  the  Gospel  (Injeel).' 

"  Sura  57  :  27  :  '  We  gave  him  Jesus,  the  Gos- 
pel, and  we  placed  in  the  hearts  of  those  who 
followed  him  kindness  and  compassion.' 

"  Sura  5:110:  '  When  I  taught  thee  the  Book 
and  Wisdom  and  the  Law  and  the  Gospel.' 

"  Then  I  said,  '  Does  this  Koran  speak  truth  or 
falsehood  ?  '  They  said,  '  Allah  forbid  that  it 
should  speak  falsehood.'  I  said,  'Are  my  words 
true  ?  '  They  replied  '  Yes  ;  there  is  no  doubt  of 
it.'  'Then,'  said  I,  '  Why  did  you  forbid  the 
boys  buying  the  books  ?  '  They  said,  '  We  did 
not,'  and  denied  it  absolutely.  I  then  said,  '  You 
should  buy  the  books  if  my  words  are  true.' 
They  said,  '  We  certainly  will  after  hearing  the 


68  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

proofs  you  have  given  us.'  From  that  day  the 
boys  thronged  around  us  and  bought  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  Moslems  became  very  fond  of  me 
and  invited  me  to  act  as  muezzin  and*  call  to 
prayer  from  the  minaret ;  but  I  excused  myself, 
telling  them  that  I  by  the  grace  of  God  am  a 
Christian.  They  continued  to  visit  me  and  I 
taught  them  as  the  Holy  Spirit  taught  me  to 
speak. 

"  On  Monday,  the  6th,  Mr.  Zwemer  went  to 
the  house  of  a  man  who  was  very  ill,  near  to 
death,  with  dropsy  of  the  abdomen.  Mr.  Zwe- 
mer tapped  the  watery  tumor  and  drew  off  the 
water,  to  the  relief  of  the  patient.  I  then 
kneeled  with  Mr.  Zwemer  at  the  sick  man's  feet 
and  prayed  to  God,  asking  that  he  would  answer 
us  in  honor  of  the  Son  of  his  love,  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  The  women  and  the  men  and 
children  who  had  assembled  all  responded 
'  Amen  '  at  the  end  of  every  sentence  of  my 
prayer.  They  bought  a  Bible  and  received  it 
with  joy,  and  we  went  forth  thanking  God. 

"  In  every  place  and  in  every  house  which  we 
entered  we  read  the  Lord's  Prayer,  with  the 
tajweed,  and  sang  hymns,  and  they  rejoiced,  and 
at  the  close  responded  with  us,  'Amen.' 

"  El  Makullah  is  a  large  town  and  finely 
paved,  with  many  large  houses  four  and  five 
stories  high  and  very  well  built.      On  the  right 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  69 

of  the  town  there  are  multitudes  of  Bedawin 
tents.  There  is  a  well  of  sulphur  water  and 
another  of  excellent  sweet  water.  Vegetables 
are  brought  from  the  interior  and  are  abundant 
and  cheap.  The  cultivated  district  is  small, 
owing  to  its  being  crowded  by  the  mountains. 
The  population  is  about  seven  thousand  or 
more.  There  are  mosques,  but  neither  Jews  nor 
Christians  ;  so  that  we  were  a  wonder  to  them. 
A  steamer  calls  there  three  times  a  year,  but 
sailing  craft  are  numerous.  There  are  sheep 
and  cattle,  camels  and  donkeys,  and  nearly 
everything.  A  little  girl  will  wear  in  her  ears  as 
many  as  twenty  rings,  in  her  nose  three,  on  her 
ankles  two  anklets  of  silver,  and  on  her  neck  six 
strings  of  beads.  They  have  many  customs  which 
it  is  not  our  province  to  describe.  There  are  a 
few  Hindus,  to  whom  I  went  and  sold  Bibles. 

"  On  Tuesday,  April  7th,  at  evening,  we  took 
ship  for  Aden,  promising  the  people  that  we 
would  come  again. 

"  On  Wednesday,  April  8th,  we  reached 
Baroum,  a  village  of  palms,  bananas,  and  cotton 
plantations,  with  about  eighty  houses  and  a 
living  well  of  excellent  water,  from  which  the 
ships  are  supplied.  There  was  not  a  single 
Koran  in  the  place,  and  the  people  are  very  sim- 
ple-minded. We  planted  a  number  of  Scriptures 
there  and  set  sail  at  midnight. 


7o 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 


"  On  Thursday,  the  9th,  we  spoke  to  the 
sailors,  as  was  our  custom  in  every  vessel  in 
which  we  sailed,  about  salvation  and  other  re- 
ligious subjects.  They  disputed  warmly  and  we 
answered  them  from  the  Koran.  They  were 
amazed   at   our  knowing  the   Koran,  and  were 


Aden  Bazaars,  where  Kamil  Preached. 


at  once  convinced  by  the  proofs  we  brought 
from  it.  We  planted  a  Bible  among  them  and 
every  day  we  spoke  with  them  until  they  began 
to  love  us  and  said,  '  We  can  only  yield  assent 
to  everything  you  say.'  We  prayed  always  so 
that  they  could  hear  and  understand. 

"At    length,    on    Saturday,    April    11th,    we 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  J\ 

reached  Aden  in  peace  and  found  our  brother, 
Mr.  Cantine,  in  health.  We  congratulated  each 
other  on  our  safety.  Mr.  Cantine  is  soon  going 
to  Muscat,  and  we  told  him  of  the  various  inci- 
dents of  our  blessed  journey,  and  he  greatly 
rejoiced  at  the  door  which  God  had  opened  to 
us  for  the  entrance  of  his  word.  During  the  day 
our  brother,  Ibrahim,  called  with  Mr.  Rasheed 
and  read  a  chapter  from  the  Bible,  and  we  offered 
thanksgiving  to  God  for  his  providence  over  us 
in  this  journey.  The  next  day  I  called  on  my 
Moslem  friend  and  found  a  number  of  Arabs 
with  him,  and  we  talked  of  our  journey  and  of 
the  religion  of  Christ.  He  is  of  liberal  views 
and  many  young  men  visit  him,  seeking  after 
the  true  faith.  May  his  house  become  a  little 
church  and  spread  to  every  part  of  Aden." 

(Conclusion  of  the  journal.) 

"  We  offer  our  thanks  and  praise  to  our 
heavenly  Father,  and  to  the  Son  of  his  love, 
and  to  his  Holy  Spirit,  to  each  of  whom  it  be- 
comes us  to  offer  our  reverence  and  worship, 
now  and  evermore,  for  going  with  us  to  carry 
his  word  to  those  who  had  never  before  known 
the  true  knowledge.  And  we  ask  of  his  divine 
Majesty  that  he  will  attend  us  and  help  us  in  all 
our  future  journeys  to  which  he  shall  separate 
us  for  the  spread  of  his  word.     Yes.  we  know 


72  KAMIL    ABDUL     MESSIAH. 

of  a  truth  that  he — be  he  praised  and  exalted  ! — 
if  he  begins  a  work  will  perfect  it,  especially  in 
the  spread  of  his  word  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Amen. 

"Note. — The  district  which  we  visited  has  only 
one  great  castle  and  most  of  the  places  have  few 
houses. 

"  From  Mejrud,  the  limit  of  British  jurisdic- 
tion, to  Makullah,  in  the  wilds  there  is  no  safety 
for  travelers  except  by  paying  money  to  each 
sultan  to  take  you  through  his  territory  to  the 
next,  and  so  on.  From  Belhaf  to  Makullah 
there  is  less  danger.  From  Makullah  to  the 
east  it  is  remarkably  safe. 

"  But  the  best  and  the  sweetest  and  the  most 
delicious  of  all  the  glad  tidings  which  we  have 
written  is  this :  We  have  planted  in  the  Lord's 
vineyard,  in  this  blessed  journey,  one  hundred 
and  ten  copies  of  the  Arabic  Scriptures.  Eight 
remained  over,  which  I  have  sold  in  Aden.  We 
pray  the  Lord  of  the  vineyard  that  he  will  cause 
these  plants  to  grow  and  bring  great  benefit  and 
good  fruits  to  the  honor  of  our  compassionate 
Redeemer,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 

"  The  penitent  youth  who  confesses  his  sins, 
"  Kamil  Abdul  Messiah." 


74  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

Kamil's  affection  for  his  father  led  him  to 
pray  earnestly  that  he,  too,  might  be  brought  to 
the  Christian  faith  and  the  joys  of  the  gospel, 
and  on  the  28th  of  the  month  Shaaban,  1308, 
A.  H.,  the  Mohammedan  date,  or  March  26, 
1 89 1,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  his  father,  sending  me 
a  copy,  of  which  the  following  is  a  literal  trans- 
lation : 

"  Aden,  Arabia,  28th  Shaaban,  1308,  A.  H., 
"or  March  26,  1891,  A.  D. 

"  Praise  to  God  alone. 

"  To  his  excellency,  his  lordship,  my  revered 
father,  the  Hajj  Muhy  ed  Deen  Effendi,  the  most 
honored  :  may  the  Lord  prolong  his  continuance. 
Amen. 

"  After  kissing  your  dear  hands  with  all  rev- 
erence and  respect  and  asking  your  continued 
prayers  in  my  behalf,  I  would  state  to  your  lord- 
ship that — praise  and  thanks  to  God — I  reached 
Port  Said  in  good  health  and  remained  there 
twenty  days,  awaiting  a  cheap  steamer.  I  then 
took  passage  and  reached  Aden  safely.  It  is 
true  that  your  son  had  some  trials  and  suffering 
at  sea,  but  the  Lord  (may  his  name  be  praised  !) 
preserved  me  in  his  providence  through  his 
favor  and  his  grace,  and  I  met  my  friends,  the 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  75 

honored  missionaries,  to  whom  I  was  journeying. 
Their  work  is  preaching  the  Christian  religion, 
that  is,  proclaiming  to  Mohammedans  the  glad 
tidings  of  salvation  in  Jesus  Christ  (Aiesa,  the 
Son  of  Mary). 

"  I  teach  them  Arabic  and  they  teach  me  the 
Tourah  and  the  Injeel  [Old  and  New  Testaments] 
and  a  little  English,  and  I  help  them  in  their 
work  of  preaching,  which  is  my  chief  aim  and 
object.  For  this  thing  I  came  to  Aden,  the 
land  of  the  Arabs,  for  I  am  bound  even  more 
than  foreign  missionaries  to  teach  and  preach 
the  gospel  of  salvation  to  the  children  of  my 
own  race. 

"  You  know,  dear  father,  that  I  had  neglected 
all  religion  and  cared  nothing  about  it.  I  gave 
no  thought  to  this  life  nor  to  the  resurrection  and 
devoted  none  of  my  time  to  the  worship  of  God, 
but  was  wandering  in  the  sea  of  evil,  engrossed 
with  the  world  and  its  pleasures. 

"  My  conscience  reproved  me  for  my  sins,  and 
I  felt  conscious  that  a  heavy  burden  of  sin  was 
accumulating  upon  me.  At  length  came  the 
time  of  my  repentance.  I  asked  God  to  have 
mercy  upon  me  and  help  me  to  overcome  the 
lusts  of  the  soul  and  the  body,  to  forgive  me  all 
my  sins,  to  cleanse  my  heart  and  preserve  it 
from  the  temptations  of  the  evil  one,  the  devil. 
I  asked  all  this  of  God  with  fervent  prayer  and 


j6  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

mighty  perseverance.  And  he  looked  upon  me 
(may  he  be  praised  and  exalted  !)  with  the  eye 
of  pity,  love,  and  joy.  He  had  compassion  on 
my  youth  and  my  life,  for  he  is  wont  to  treat  his 
penitent  children  with  tenderness  and  love.  Es- 
pecially does  he  love  and  rejoice  and  delight  in 
the  penitence  of  young  men  who  forsake  their 
fleshly  lusts.  He  has  expressed  this  in  his  own 
precious  words,  '  There  is  joy  in  heaven  over 
one  sinner  that  repenteth,  more  than  over  ninety 
and  nine  just  persons,  which  need  no  repentance.' 
Oh,  my  dear  father,  I  am  sure  that  God  has  for- 
given me  and  pardoned  my  transgressions.  He 
has  sought  me  to  become  one  of  his  children 
and  a  laborer  in  his  vineyard  ;  yes,  one  of  those 
who  has  received  his  favor  and  whom  he  has 
forgiven.  God  has  sent  to  me  his  pure  Spirit  to 
teach  me  and  preserve  me  from  my  foes,  the 
flesh,  the  world,  and  the  devil.  He  has  con- 
ferred freely  upon  me  a  new  garment  and  taken 
off  the  old  garment  with  its  works.  Thanks  to 
his  exalted  and  most  holy  Majesty  for  this  love 
and  tender  compassion.  May  his  holy  name  be 
blessed  forever  and  ever  !     Amen. 

"  I  will  hereafter  inform  your  lordship  about 
my  work  in  Aden,  and  of  the  regeneration 
wrought  in  me  with  more  of  details.  Rejoice, 
yes  I  say  rejoice,  over  your  son  Kamil,  for  God 
has  received  him  and  pardoned  him  and  hears 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  'JJ 

his  prayers.  He  has  attended  him  in  all  his 
journey  and  never  forsaken  him.  God  forbid 
that  he  should  leave  me  or  forsake  me  after  I 
have  known  him  and  become  one  of  his  own 
children  and  disciples.  He  is  always  at  my 
right  hand  teaching  me,  guiding  me  to  his  com- 
mandments, to  hear  his  word,  and  keeping  me 
from  violating  his  precepts.  Oh,  my  honored 
and  precious  father,  your  former  son  Kamil  has 
died  with  all  his  works,  and  now  you  have  a 
new  son  Kamil,  accepted  with  God,  who  attends 
him  all  night  long  and  throughout  the  day. 

"  My  work  is  study,  reading,  teaching,  and 
preaching  to  my  brethren,  the  Mohammedans. 
May  God  enlighten  their  hearts  and  send  his 
Holy  Spirit  to  illumine  their  minds,  that  they 
may  know  God  with  a  true  knowledge,  and  dis- 
tinguish between  the  true  and  false  prophets. 
Amen  and  Amen. 

"  My  salutations  to  all  my  brethren.  As  I 
have  told  you  of  my  work  in  Aden,  I  wish  to 
ask  you  four  questions  : 

"I.  Is  it  lawful  for  your  son  to  read  the 
Old  and  the  New  Testaments  ? 

"  II.   If  not,  why  not  ? 

"  III.  Are  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
books  of  God  ? 

"  IV.  Were  they  written  by  inspiration  of 
God  sent  upon  his  honored  apostles  ? 


78  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

"  I  would  request  that  your  lordship  will 
honor  me  with  an  answer  to  these  four  questions, 
that  the  thoughts  of  your  son  may  be  at  rest 
concerning  them,  and  I  will  be  greatly  obliged  to 
you. 

"  I  close  my  letter  by  kissing  your  pure  hands 
and  asking  your  good  prayers,  my  honored 
father. 

"  May  I  not  be  bereaved  of  you.  Amen. 
And  may  you  live  forever. 

"  Your  obedient  son  confessing  his  sins, 

"  Kamil." 

To  this  letter  his  father  sent  the  following 
reply  : 

"  Beirut,  24th  Ramadan,  1308,  A.  H. 

"  April  20,  1 89 1. 
"  Praise  to  God  alone. 

"  To  his  excellency,  our  beloved  and  honored 
son,  the  Sayyid  Kamil  Efifendi  Aietany,  the  re- 
spected :  may  his  continuance  be  prolonged. 
Amen. 

' 'After  sending  you  abundant  salutations  and 
the  mercy  of  God  and  his  blessings,  and  kiss- 
ing your  cheeks  with  all  longing  and  affection, 
we  hope  to  see  you  soon  in  the  best  of  health. 

' 'After  this  we  say  that,  while  we  were  looking 
for  good  news  from  you,  your  precious  letter  of 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 


79 


28th  Shaaban  arrived.  We  read  it  rejoicing  at 
your  safe  arrival.  We  had  been  in  great  anxiety 
owing  to  the  long  delay  of  your  letter,  and  were 
not  relieved  until  it  came,  assuring  us — praise  to 
God  ! — of  your  health  and  prosperity.  And  we 
gave  thanks  to  God  for  this.  May  he  be  ex- 
alted ! 

"  You  inform  me  that  you  have  repented  to- 


Bedawin  and  Camels. 


ward  God  and  avoided  what  he  forbids  and  given 
up  doing  what  displeases  him,  and  that  you  are 
earnestly  trying  to  act  according  to  his  pure 
law,  devoted  to  his  worship.  Be  he  exalted,  as 
he  pleases  ! 

"  We  were  greatly  rejoiced  at  what  God  has 
conferred  upon  you. 

"  I  enjoin  you  (the  favor  of  God  be  with  you) 


80  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

to  persevere  in  his  worship  (be  he  exalted  !)  and 
do  not  neglect  to  mention  *  him  always,  for  by 
mention  of  him  the  heart  is  assured,  and  it  is 
imperishable  gain. 

"  Persevere  in  the  five  hours  of  prayer  daily 
with  prayer  for  his  honored  Prophet  our  Lord 
and  Mediator  Mohammed,  upon  him  be  prayer 
and  peace. 

"  Continue  to  read  the  precious  Koran,  and 
may  you  suffer  no  sloth  nor  weariness  in  the 
worship  of  God.  This  is  the  only  way  to  insure 
God's  favor  toward  us.  We  ask  of  him,  exalted, 
to  confirm  us  and  you  in  his.  own  true  religion 
and  his  right  way,  by  his  grace  and  favor. 
Amen. 

"  With  regard  to  your  questions,  I  reply : 
'  Follow  the  divine  word  in  his  precious  book, 
the  Koran :  "  What  the  apostle  has  bidden, 
accept,  what  he  has  forbidden,  reject."  '  This 
verse  from  the  Koran  means  that  we  should 
obey  the  command  of  our  Prophet  Mohammed, 
(on  him  be  prayer  and  peace  !)  and  refrain  from 
what  he  has  forbidden. 

"  Now  as  to  his  commands,  he  has  bidden 
us  to  worship  God,  exalted,  according  to  the 
religion  God  has  given,  especially  to  our  Prophet 


*  The  sheikh  evidently  means  by  "mention"  of  God,  the 
zikr  or  the  tasbih. 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  8  I 

Mohammed  (on  him  be  prayer  and  peace  !)  ac- 
cording to  the  word  of  the  precious  Koran. 
That  is  the  religion  of  Islam. 

"  The  only  true  creed  is  this,  '  I  testify  that 
there  is  no  god  but  God,  and  Mohammed  is 
his  Apostle.' 

"  Then  the  five  daily  prayers,  then  alms.  If 
one  has  seven  hundred  piasters  [$25]  he  is  rich 
and  must  give  alms,  and  if  he  has  more  he  must 
give  accordingly.  He  must  perform  the  pil- 
grimage to  the  house  of  God,  the  Haram  in 
Mecca  if  he  is  able.  One  visit  is  enough  to  pay 
the  obligation.  He  must  also  fast  during  the 
month  of  Ramadan.  Any  one  who  neglects 
any  of  these  duties  is  not  a  perfect  Moslem,  and 
all  his  worship  is  corrupt. 

"  As  to  what  is  forbidden  by  Mohammed,  our 
lord  (on  him  be  prayer  and  peace  !)  : 

"  He  forbids  our  joining  anything  with  God 
in  worship  and  bids  us  leave  all  other  religions 
and  follow  his  religion  which  God  has  enjoined, 
and  obey  its  injunctions.  These  things  are  a 
duty  and  we  must  follow  them.  He  has  for- 
bidden us  from  following  another  religion. 

"  Now  with  regard  to  your  four  questions,  we 
reply : 

"  I.   It   is   lawful   to   read   the   Old  and  New 

Testaments,   but    unlawful    to   act  according  to 

them,  because  the  book  of  the  Great  God  which 
6 


82  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

he  sent  down  to  our  lord  Mohammed  (on  him 
be  prayer  and  peace  !)  has  abrogated  the  wisdom 
of  all  previous  laws. 

"  II.   This  is  already  answered  in  the  above. 

"III.  The  Old  and  New  Testaments  are  the 
books  of  God.  He  sent  down  the  Old  Testa- 
ment [Tourah]  to  our  lord  Moses  the  Kaleem 
[the  addressed]  of  God,  on  him  be  the  prayers 
of  God !  and  the  New  Testament  [Injeel]  he 
sent  down  to  our  Lord  Aiesa  [Jesus],  on  him 
be  peace  ! 

"  IV.  The  Old  and  New  Testaments  were 
sent  down  to  the  honored  apostles  by  inspiration 
from  God. 

"  We  have  now  told  you  what  is  necessary  in 
reply  to  your  questions,  and  may  the  Lord  open 
to  you  the  truth  and  may  you  live  forever. 

"It  is  true  that  we  believe  that  God,  exalted, 
sent  down  the  Tourah  to  our  lord  Moses  and 
the  Injeel  to  our  Lord  Aiesa,  but  the  laws  of 
the  Koran  have  abrogated  the  laws  of  the  Tourah 
and  the  Injeel,  therefore  it  is  not  lawful  to  accept 
their  teachings  unless  they  conform  to  what  is 
in  his  book,  as  for  instance,  the  ten  command- 
ments, '  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery,'  etc. 

"  Such  things  as  the  following :  that  Lot  (on 
him  be  peace !)  drank  wine  and  committed 
adultery  with  his  daughters  ;  that  David  com- 
mitted adultery ;   that  Solomon  in  his  old  age 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  83 

worshiped  idols — these  things  we  do  not  believe 
at  all. 

"  Nor  do  we  believe  in  the  Trinity,  for  '  God 
is  the  only  One  God,  he  has  no  wife  or  Son.' 
All  the  texts  prove  that  he  is  One.  He  said 
(be  he  exalted  !)  :  '  If  there  be  other  gods  than 
God,  they  are  corrupt.' 

"  Now,  since  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
contain  statements  of  this  kind,  it  must  appear 
to  you,  my  darling  son,  apple  of  my  eye,  that 
they  are  perverted  and  corrupted,  and  that  they 
are  not  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  which  were 
sent  down  to  Moses  and  Jesus,  upon  whom  be 
peace  !  It  is  not  lawful  for  you  to  read  them 
for  any  other  object  than  for  the  defense  of  your 
own  religion.  But  to  preach  from  them  and  to 
summon  the  servants  of  God  to  believe  in  their 
falsehoods,  this  is  one  of  the  greatest  crimes, 
and  he  who  does  it,  if  he  is  not  an  infidel  is 
worse  than  an  infidel,  and  his  torment  hereafter 
will  be  greater.  I  therefore  warn  you,  my  son, 
from  this  vain  business  which  will  take  you  to 
hell.  What  is  the  world  but  a  deceitful  posses- 
sion ?  If  you  trust  in  it  it  will  lead  you  to  the 
brink  of  the  pit.  If  you  do  not  give  good  heed, 
O  apple  of  my  eye,  you  will  plunge  into  the  pit 
and  be  among  those  that  perish,  which  may  God 
forbid.  I  counsel  you,  my  son  Kamil,  to  return 
to  your  country  and  not  distress  my  thoughts 


84  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

and  leave  me  to  die  of  longing  for  you.     Take 
the  advice  of  your  father  and  upon  you  be  peace 
and  the  mercy  and  blessing  of  God. 
"  Your  father, 

"  M A ." 

This  reply  of  Kamil's  father  takes  up  only  one 
of  the  Mohammedan  arguments  against  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments,  viz.,  that  they  have  been 
abrogated  by  the  Koran.  They  also  claim  that 
the  Bible  has  been  changed  and  corrupted  so  as 
to  prove  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  his  death  and 
resurrection.  The  admixture  of  paternal  tender- 
ness with  religious  warning  is  very  touching. 
Once  when  Kamil  was  in  Mount  Lebanon  his 
father  wrote  him  that  if  he  apostatized  from 
Islam  he  might  be  obliged  to  take  his  life. 
This  was  probably  meant  for  intimidation,  but  it 
is  quite  in  harmony  with  the  universal  opinion 
of  Moslems  that  apostasy  is  a  forfeiture  of  wife 
and  children  and  property  and  life. 

Kamil  replied  to  his  father  as  follows  : 

"Aden,  13  Zil  Kaadeh,  1308,  A.  H. 

"June  19,  1891. 

"  To    his    excellency,  the    good    and  revered 

my   lord    and    father,    the    most    honored,    the 


86  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

Sheikh  M.  Effendi the  most  exalted,  may 

his  life  continue.     Amen. 

"After  kissing  your  pure  hands  and  asking  your 
good  prayers,  and  inquiring  after  your  noble  and 
precious  pleasure,  I  would  state  to  your  lordship 
that  in  an  hour  which  is  the  ornament  of  the 
hours,  and  which  will  be  mentioned  with  joy  in 
all  time,  I  was  honored  by  the  receipt  of  the 
answer  of  your  lordship,  dated  24th  Ramadan, 
1308,  to  the  four  questions  previously  presented 
by  your  son.  The  purport  of  your  reply  is  that 
the  reading  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  is 
lawful,  but  to  act  in  accordance  with  their  teach- 
ing is  wrong,  inasmuch  as  the  great  book  of 
God  which  he  sent  down  to  our  lord  Moham- 
med (on  whom  be  prayer  and  peace  from  God  !) 
has  abrogated  the  wisdom  of  all  other  laws ; 
also  that  the  Tourah  and  Injeel  are  books  of 
God,  the  Tourah  being  sent  down  to  our  lord 
Moses  the  Kaleem  [speaker]  of  God  (may  the 
prayers  of  God  be  upon  him  !)  and  the  Injeel 
upon  our  Lord  Aiesa  [  Jesus] ,  upon  him  be 
peace.  Also  that  they  were  sent  down  to  the 
honored  apostles  by  inspiration  from  God.  You 
also  say  that  it  is  unlawful  to  receive  what  is  in 
them  unless  it  be  in  accordance  with  our  book, 
as  the  ten  commandments.  But  such  statements 
as  that  the  prophets  like  Lot  and  David  and 
Solomon  sinned  against  God,  we  can  not  believe 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  8? 

at  all.  Nor  do  we  believe  in  the  Trinity  because 
there  is  the  one  only  God  who  has  no  wife  nor 
Son,  and  there  are  many  texts  to  prove  that  he 
is  One.  You  also  say  that  as  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  contain  such  things,  it  is  plain  that 
they  have  been  changed  and  corrupted,  and  that- 
they  are  not  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  sent 
down  to  Moses  and  Jesus  (on  them  be  peace  !), 
and  that  we  should  not  read  them  for  any  other 
object  than  the  defense  of  our  religion  ;  and  to 
preach  from  them  and  call  God's  servants  to 
believe  in  their  falsehoods,  is  the  greatest  of 
crimes,  and  whosoever  does  it,  if  he  be  not  an 
infidel  is  worse  than  the  infidels.  You  warn  me 
against  this  and  advise  me  to  return  home  in 
peace.  You  also  enjoin  me  to  please  God  and 
continue  in  his  worship  and  direct  me  to  observe 
the  rites  and  observances  such  as  prayer  and 
fasting,  alms,  etc.,  and  to  continue  reading  the 
precious  Koran,  and  so  on  to  the  end. 

"  On  reading  this  letter  of  your  lordship  I 
overflowed  with  the  offering  of  the  greatest 
reverence  and  hearty  thanksgivings  to  your 
fatherly  tenderness,  in  the  joy  and  great  gladness 
you  show  at  God's  grace  to  me  in  giving  me 
repentance  and  forgiveness  out  of  his  favor  and 
love.  And  what  increased  my  joy  is  your  ex- 
cellency's congratulations  to  me  for  this  great 
divine  gift  to  me.      I  thank  God  for  his  surpass- 


S5  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

ing  kindness  and  his  great  favor.  I  supplicate 
his  exalted  and  glorious  Majesty  that  he  may 
confirm  me  in  the  sound  faith  and  the  true 
religion,  that  I  may  continue  in  his  worship  ac- 
cording to  his  will  and  pleasure.  I  hope  that 
he  will  preserve  me  from  the  wiles  of  the  devil 
and  his  evil  ways,  and  preserve  you  in  his  provi- 
dence by  his  favor  and  his  goodness.     Amen. 

"  After  this,  your  excellency  my  father,  I 
began  to  examine  and  investigate  all  the  con- 
tents of  your  honorable  letter,  seeking  rest  for 
my  mind,  but  the  result  was  that  my  mind  be- 
came more  disturbed  than  ever  before,  and  this 
after  I  had  read  it  over  a  second  and  third  time. 

"  Therefore,  after  asking  your  permission  and 
requesting  your  favor  and  your  fatherly  prayers, 
I  would  say  in  reply  to  your  excellency  : 

"  We  read  in  the  Koran,  Sura  8,  v.  8,  as 
follows  : 

"  '  That  he  might  prove  his  truth  to  be  the 
truth,  and  bring  to  naught  that  which  is  naught 
though  the  impious  were  averse  to  it.' 

"  Now,  as  to  the  statement  of  your  lordship 
that  '  it  is  lawful  to  read  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
taments,' how  excellent  and  how  fine  is  your 
reply,  did  it  end  there.  But  you  then  say,  '  It 
is  wrong  to  act  according  to  them.'  This  makes 
our  condition  like  that  of  a  man  who  makes  a 
great  feast  of  good  things,  providing  the  most 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  89 

luscious  fruits,  the  finest  vegetables,  the  rarest 
of  fowls  and  fishes,  the  purest  of  meats  and 
the  richest  buklawah,  sweet  pastry,  etc.,  and 
when  the  invited  guests  had  all  assembled  and 
were  seated  around  the  table  inhaling  the  de- 
licious odors,  looking  upon  the  tempting  viands, 
and  just  taking  up  the  spoons  to  eat,  the  master 
of  the  house  should  rise  and  say  aloud,  '  Di- 
vide not  a  single  loaf,  partake  of  not  a  single 
dish,  and  eat  nothing  of  the  sweets.'  What  an 
hour  of  wretchedness  would  it  be  to  those 
invited  guests.  They  would  sit  amazed.  Woe 
to  them  !  How  can  they  refrain  from  the  ex- 
pected pleasure  ?  Woe  to  them  if  they  violate 
propriety  and  eat ! 

"  Oh  my  dear  father,  such  would  be  my  state, 
the  state  of  the  guests,  and  yours  that  of  the 
master  of  the  house.  For  since  you  say  it  is 
lawful  to  read  the  books,  I  opened  them  and 
read  the  following  precious  treasures :  Christ 
said,  '  Whatsoever  ye  will  that  men  should  do 
unto  you,  do  ye  also  likewise  unto  them,  for 
this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets.'  He  also  said, 
'  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.'  '  I  am  the 
resurrection,  and  the  life  ;  he  that  believeth  in 
me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live ;  and 
whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall  never 
die.'     He  also  said,  '  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the 


90  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

branches  ;  he  that  abideth  in  me,  and  I  in  him, 
the  same  bringeth  forth  much  fruit :  for  without 
me  ye  can  do  nothing.'  *  Fear  not :  for  I  have 
redeemed  thee,  I  have  called  thee  by  thy  name ; 
thou  art  mine.  When  thou  passest  through  the 
waters,  I  will  be  with  thee ;  and  through  the 
rivers,  they  shall  not  overflow  thee ;  when  thou 
walkest  through  the  fire,  thou  shalt  not  be 
burned ;  neither  shall  the  flame  kindle  upon 
thee.  For  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel,  thy  Saviour.'  '  I  will  never  leave 
thee  nor  forsake  thee.'  Then  I  read  this  com- 
mand of  Christ/  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  mind ;  and  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself.'  And  God  says  in  Isaiah :  '  Though 
your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as 
snow ;  though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they 
shall  be  as  wool.'  And  so  it  is,  my  honored 
father,  from  the  beginning  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  the  end  of  the  New ;  I  find  verses  like 
these  which  delight  and  refresh  and  quicken  the 
heart  and  soften  it ;  and  when  I  wish  to  ap- 
propriate them  with  all  my  heart,  and  believe 
them,  on  account  of  the  delight  I  have  in  read- 
ing them,  then  you  call  out  to  me,  '  Break  not  a 
loaf,  touch  not  a  dish '  ('  it  is  wrong  to  act 
according  to  them  '),  and  I  become  like  those 
poor  invited  guests,  or  rather  I  become  like  the 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  9 1 

man  of  whom  Christ  said,  '  he  built  his  house 
on  the  sand,  and  the  wind  and  the  storms  came 
and  destroyed  it,'  or  like  the  donkey  mentioned 
in  the  Koran,  '  like  a  donkey  laden  with  books.' 
And  I  think  you  would  not  consent  to  my  being 
like  a  donkey  carrying  books. 

"And,  more  than  this,  we  see  that  we  poor 
sinners  with  all  the  weakness  of  our  intellects 
and  the  defects  of  our  understanding,  do  nothing 
and  write  nothing  without  an  object.  Our  ob- 
ject is  to  effect  something  by  what  we  do  or 
write.  Now  how  is  it  with  God,  be  he  praised 
and  exalted  ?  Infallible  in  respect  to  sin  or 
forgetfulness  ;  would  he  command  these  books 
to  be  written  without  any  object  ?  God  for- 
bid !     God  forbid  ! 

"  The  divine  inspiration  of  these  books,  then, 
must  have  been  for  some  great  object,  and  that, 
the  keeping  of  their  commandments  and  avoid- 
ance of  what  they  forbid,  also  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth  in  the  inward  parts  and  that  one  may 
distinguish  between  the  true  and  false  prophets, 
and  worship  God  spiritually,  for  God  is  a  Spirit  : 
and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship  him  in 
spirit  and  in  truth. 

"  The  inference  then,  is  plain — if  reading  these 
books  is  lawful,  obedience  to  them  is  necessary. 
As  one  has  said,  '  The  carelessness  of  the  heart 
about  truth  is  one  of  the  greatest  faults.' 


92  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

"  Now,  as  to  the  Koran  having  abrogated  all 
previous  laws,  my  dear  father,  I  cannot  find  in 
the  Koran  a  single  verse  showing  that  it  has 
abrogated  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  but  the 
contrary.  It  says  in  the  Surat  el  Anaam,  '  We 
gave  Moses  the  book  complete  as  to  whatever 
is  excellent  and  an  explanation  of  every  matter 
and  a  direction  and  a  mercy,  if  haply  they  might 
believe  in  the  meeting  of  their  Lord.'  Then  in 
Surat  Hood,  'And  before  him  is  the  book  of 
Moses  a  guide  and  a  mercy.  These  have  faith 
in  it,  but  the  partisans  who  believe  not  in  it  are 
menaced  with  the  fire.  Have  thou  no  doubts 
about  that  book,  for  it  is  the  very  truth  from  thy 
Lord,  but  most  men  will  not  believe.'  And  in 
Surat  el  Kosos  :  'And  verily  we  gave  Moses  the 
book  after  that  we  had  destroyed  the  former 
generations,  an  enlightenment  unto  mankind 
and  a  direction  and  a  mercy,  if  haply  they  might 
be  admonished.'  Also  in  Surat  el  Maledat  :  'And 
we  caused  Jesus,  the  Son  of  Mary,  to  follow  in 
their  footsteps,  attesting  the  Scripture  of  the 
Tourah  which  preceded  him  :  and  we  gave  him 
the  Gospel  wherein  is  guidance  and  light,  which 
attests  the  Tourah  that  preceded  it,  and  a  direc- 
tion and  an  admonition  to  the  pious.' 

"  There  are  many  passages  of  like  meaning, 
but  for  want  of  time  we  will  let  these  suffice. 
'  The  wise  is   satisfied  with  a  little.'     It  is  clear 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  93 

to  me,  your  excellency,  my  father,  from  the 
meaning  of  the  preceding  passages,  that  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  are  complete  and  perfect  in 
everything  needed  in  religion:  a  guidance  to 
mercy,  an  enlightenment  to  all  men  of  all  sects 
and  faiths,  lights  to  their  hearts,  by  which  they 
see  truth  and  discriminate  between  truth  and 
falsehood,  and  a  guide  to  the  laws  which  are  the 
true  way  of  God,  and  a  mercy,  for  if  we  act 
according  to  them  we  will  receive  mercy  from 
God,  be  his  name  praised  and  exalted  ! 

"  Now,  is  there  higher  praise  than  this  ?  What 
book  has  been  described  and  characterized  with 
such  beautiful  epithets  ? 

"  Further,  it  is  plain  from  the  above  verses 
from  the  Koran  that  they  who  disbelieve  the 
words  of  God  shall  have  great  torment  ;  that 
God  is  exalted,  a  God  of  vengeance,  and  the  fire 
is  their  portion.  Now,  if  we  turn  aside  from  the 
decisions  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  and 
put  in  their  places  our  own  words  and  the  words 
of  other  men,  for  the  sake  of  maintaining  our 
worldly  glory,  we  are  no  doubt  infidels  and  the 
fire  is  our  portion.      May  God  forbid  ! 

"  Now,  after  all  these  quotations  and  proofs 
you  say,  nay,  you  charge  the  Koran  with  saying 
that  the  wisdom  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
is  abrogated.  How  then  shall  I  escape  from  the 
wrath  of  God  at  the  day  of  resurrection,  when 


94  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

neither  parent  nor  children  can  profit  us  ?  Then 
will  prove  true  the  proverb,  '  Every  sheep  is 
suspended  by  his  own  leg,'  when  I  stand  before 
the  great  bar  of  judgment.  We  would  also  add 
your  own  remark,  '  They  are  books  of  God. 
He  sent  down  the  Tourah  to  Moses,  his  familiar 
speaker,  and  the  Gospel  to  our  Lord  Jesus 
(upon  them  be  peace  !),  and  they  were  sent  down 
with  inspiration  from  God  to  the  honored 
apostles.' 

"  Oh,  my  misfortune ;  Oh,  the  misfortune  of 
others  if  we  do  not  read  it  with  awe  and  rever- 
ence, with  obedience  and  respect. 

"  Then,  as  to  the  declaration  of  your  lordship, 
'  We  have  no  right  to  accept  any  of  their  teach- 
ings unless  they  accord  with  our  own  book,  e.g., 
as  the  ten  commandments,'  you  have  in  this 
word  dragged  down  the  Bible  to  the  level  of  a 
moral  or  a  story-book,  since,  according  to  your 
claim,  if  there  be  anything  in  harmony  with  our 
own  selves  and  our  own  lusts,  and  within  our 
comprehension,  we  will  yield  to  it  and  believe  it, 
otherwise  we  will  let  it  go. 

"  This  is  not  proper  treatment  of  the  book  of 
God.  We  ought  to  hear  what  it  says  with  all 
reverence  and  attention,  and  believe  all  it  says 
from  its  word,  '  In  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heaven  and  the  earth,'  to  its  last  word, 
'  Amen  ';  for  '  all  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  95 

of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  re- 
proof, for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness ;  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect, 
thoroughly  furnished  unto  every  good  work.' 

"  Let  us  see  what  the  Koran  says  on  this 
point,  and  also  the  words  of  Baidhawi,  the 
learned  commentator.  Surat  en  Nissa  :  '  Oh,  ye 
that  believe,  believe  in  God  and  in  his  prophet, 
and  in  the  book  which  he  hath  revealed  to  his 
prophet,  and  in  the  book  which  he  revealed  from 
before.'  Now  hear  the  Moslem  commentator, 
Baidhawi :  *  The  Moslems  are  here  addressed, 
or  the  hypocrites,  or  the  believers  from  among 
the  people  of  the  book,  according  to  the  follow- 
ing tradition  :  Ibn  Sallam  and  his  companions 
said,  "  O  prophet  of  God,  we  believe  in  thee 
and  in  thy  book,  and  in  Moses  and  in  the  Tourah 
and  Ezra,  and  we  disbelieve  in  all  besides."  Then 
was  this  text  revealed,  ''Believe,"  etc.,  as  above.' 
Baidhawi  then  says,  '  That  is,  be  steadfast  in  the 
faith  thereof  and  perpetually  rest  thereupon,  and 
believe  in  it  with  all  your  hearts  as  ye  believe  in 
it  with  your  lips  ;  or  believe  with  a  compre- 
hensive faith  which  shall  embrace  all  the  Scrip- 
tures and  apostles  ;  for  the  faith  of  a  part  is  as 
no  faith  at  all,  and  whosoever  disbelieveth  in 
them  or  in  any  part  thereof  has  wandered  from 
the  truth  into  wide  and  dangerous  error,  and 
can  hardly  return  to  it.' 


g6  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

"  Now,  after  all  this,  how  can  I  believe  in  a 
part  and  deny  the  rest,  and  thus  become  a  wan- 
derer '  into  wide  and  dangerous  error,'  far  from 
the  way  of  truth  so  that  I  can  hardly  return  to 
it  ?  I  would  thus  become  a  fool  or  a  '  hypocrite,' 
which  may  God  forbid.  No  ;  I  will  read  them 
and  believe  them  with  all  my  heart,  with  all 
longing  and  zeal,  unless  you  will  give  me  proofs 
to  the  contrary,  strong  proofs  from  the  word  of 
God,  not  from  the  words  of  men  ;  but  this  you 
are  far  from  able  to  do.  You  would  far  better 
unite  with  me  in  reading  them  and  thus  be  of 
those  who  are  good. 

"  Now  as  to  the  evidence  and  proof  of  your 
assertion  that  the  Tourah  and  the  Injeel  have 
been  changed  and  are  not  the  very  Tourah  and 
Injeel  sent  down  to  our  lord,  Moses,  the  speaker 
with  God,  and  to  our  Lord  Aiesa,  the  Christ 
(upon  them  be  peace  !),  for  the  reason  that,  as 
you  say,  they  impute  sin  to  the  prophets,  we 
reply  as  follows  :  You  say  that  the  Bible  charges 
Lot  and  David  with  adultery,  and  Solomon  in 
his  old  age  with  idolatry.  But  this  does  not 
prove  to  me  that  the  Scriptures  have  been 
changed.  We  read  in  the  Koran  that  David 
took  his  brother's  ewe  lamb  (Sura  2),  and  Adam 
ate  of  the  forbidden  tree  (Sura  2),  and  Abraham 
was  an  idolater,  and  Joseph  longed  for  the 
Egyptian  woman,  and  that  Mohammed  was  in 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  97 

error  and  received  guidance  and  that  he  was 
wroth  with  a  blind  man,  and  that  Aaron 
worshiped  the  calf  when  his  brother  was  on 
the  mountain. 

"  We  find  many  such  cases  in  the  Koran,  and 
it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  the  rest  of  the 
prophets  also  sinned  against  the  law  of  the 
Lord.  They  were  men  like  ourselves,  and  acted 
as  we  act,  for  by  nature  they  were  inclined 
toward  sin  in  carnal  matters.  We  confess,  indeed, 
and  declare  that  the  prophets  were  infallibly  pre- 
served in  their  prophecies  and  in  writing  that 
for  which  they  were  inspired  by  God  (be  he 
praised  and  exalted  !),  but  in  other  respects  they 
were  like  us  in  everything. 

"  This  very  fact  has  given  me  new  vigor  and 
strength  and  faith  in  reading  the  Scriptures,  and 
has  proved  to  me  that  they  are  not  changed,  for 
it  makes  no  distinction,  but  declares  all  to  be 
sinners  in  the  eyes  of  God.  All  need  forgive- 
ness and  to  ask  pardon  of  the  high  and  lofty 
God.  And,  further,  we  should  not  reject  any- 
thing in  God's  word,  because  it  is  above  the 
comprehension  of  our  intellects,  but  yield  acqui- 
escence and  believe  it,  whatever  it  may  be. 

"  No  proof  has  yet  been  offered  of  any  change 
in  the  old  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments. They  are  before  the  whole  world. 
Where  is  the  proof  of  any  vital  change  ?  Hun- 
7 


98  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

dreds  and  thousands  of  copies  and  translations 
are  spread  out  before  the  world.  Now,  my  dear 
father,  let  us  who  maintain  and  insist  that  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  have  been  perverted 
and  changed  examine  the  matter  for  ourselves. 
Let  us  go  to  the  very  bottom  of  the  question. 
Let  us  print  our  investigations  and  publish  them 
to  the  world.  Christians  have  no  fear  of  minute 
inquiry,  and  it  may  even  be  that  they  would  pay 
us  for  our  labors  ;  for  they  are  constantly  ex- 
pending money  to  search  into  everything  per- 
taining to  the  Bible.  No,  my  father  ;  even  as  it 
is  certain  that  no  proof  has  been  found  of  a 
vital  change  in  the  Bible,  neither  will  one  be 
found  in  the  future. 

"  One  of  the  insuperable  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  changing  and  tampering  with  the  text  of 
the  Bible  is  the  multitude  of  versions  and  trans- 
lations, and  their  wide  distribution  over  the 
earth.  To  gather  them  all  and  change  them  all 
in  the  same  way  so  that  they  would  all  agree  in 
all  the  different  languages  would  be  simply 
impossible.  If  a  few  were  changed,  the  rest 
would  remain  pure  as  a  proof  of  the  change, 
and  thus  the  fraud  would  easily  be  detected. 
Another  difficulty  in  the  way  of  changing  the 
Old  Testament  is  the  excessive  care  taken  by  the 
Jews  to  guard  the  purity  of  the  Hebrew  text. 
They  counted  the  very  letters  in  the  Pentateuch 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  99 

and  could  tell  the  middle  letter,  and  also  the 
middle  sentence,  word  and  letter,  in  the  rest  of 
the  Old  Testament.  They  know  how  many 
times  each  letter  of  the  alphabet  occurs  in  the 
whole  book.  For  instance,  they  found  that  the 
letter  Aleph  occurs  42,377  times,  and  Beth 
32,318  times,  etc.  This  grew  out  of  their 
extraordinary  care  of  the  text,  and  a  change  in 
the  language  while  in  their  hands  was  utterly 
impossible. 

"And  more  than  all  this,  the  bitter  hostility 
between  the  Jews  and  Christians  would  make 
any  collusion  to  change  the  text  out  of  the 
question.  Had  a  Jew  dared  to  change  it,  the 
Christian  would  have  risen  up  and  forbidden 
him,  given  him  the  lie  and  cursed  him,  and  the 
same  would  happen  did  the  Christian  change  it. 

"And,  finally,  I  would  say  that  if  a  man  came 
to  your  excellency  and  said,  'A  large  part  of  the 
Koran  has  been  changed  and  perverted,'  you 
would  answer  him  instantly,  '  Be  silent,  you  in- 
fidel ;  the  words  inspired  of  God  are  not  subject 
to  change,  nor  would  any  one  dare  to  exscind  or 
pervert  them.' 

"And  so  I  can  say  that  the  Tourah  and  Injeel 
are  the  books  of  God,  and  no  one  would  dare 
to  stretch  out  his  hand  with  evil  intent  against 
them,  after  reading  the  warning  in  the  last 
chapter  of   the    noble    gospel  which    says,  '  If 


IOO  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

any  man  shall  take  away  from  the  words  of  the 
book  of  this  prophecy,  God  shall  take  away  his 
part  out  of  the  book  of  life,  and  from  the  things 
which  are  written  in  this  book.' 

"  I  think  that  the  above  is  enough  to  convince 
you  that  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  are  the 
very  books  given  by  inspiration  '  to  Moses  and 
to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'  God  grant  that  this 
may  satisfy  your  excellency  and  remove  the 
false  suspicion  and  impression  with  regard  to 
God's  word.  I  hope  you  will  read  them  with 
joy  and  gladness  and  believe  in  all  they  contain, 
and  thus  join  the  goodly  company  of  those  who 
attain  the  favor  of  God — be  he  praised  and  ex- 
alted !  0  Lord  enlighten  the  mind  of  my  father 
and  of  all  the  Mohammedans.     Amen. 

"And  now  as  to  your  claim  that  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel  and  calling  men  to  believe  in 
the  Scriptures  is  wrong,  as  you  urge,  and  that  it 
is  '  the  greatest  of  crimes,  and  he  who  does  it, 
if  he  be  not  an  infidel,  is  worse  than  an  infidel,' 
etc.,  I  would  say,  my  honored  father,  that  after 
the  convincing  proofs  I  have  given  you  of  the 
authenticity  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
the  impossibility  of  their  having  been  corrupted 
and  changed,  and  that  they  are  the  very  books 
1  sent  down  '  to  our  lord  Moses  and  to  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  I  read  these  books  and  preach 
them,  and  teach  all  that  they  contain,  and  invite 


KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH.  10 1 

my  Moslem  brethren  to  believe  in  them,  I 
believe  in  all  they  say  in  word;  deed,  and 
thought.  And  I  also  invite  your  excellency -and' 
my  brethren  and  my  kindred  and  my  friends'  t6 
believe  in  these  two  noble  books.  Oh,  my  joy,  my 
delight,  would  you  but  read  them  and  believe 
what  they  contain  of  treasures  and  precious 
jewels  !  I  entreat  you  to  read  them  if  it  be  but 
once,  and  you  would  then  see  how  your  heart 
would  cling  to  them.  Then  would  you  exclaim, 
1  Yes,  there  is  no  doubt  nor  question  about  their 
being  the  books  of  God  ! '  And  every  day,  yea, 
every  hour  you  would  read  them  with  joy  and 
teach  and  preach  and  guide  others  to  these 
precious  jewels.  Then  you  would  say,  *  My  son 
Kamil  is  right  ;  the  truth  is  with  him,  and  he 
has  attained  the  favor  of  God — be  he  praised  and 
exalted  ! ' 

* 'Again,  you  charge  me  to  repeat  constantly 
the  name  of  God,  Allah.  Oh,  my  revered 
father,  God  himself  has  charged  me  not  to  take 
his  name  in  vain,  in  the  streets  and  lanes,  in  the 
outhouses  and  vile  places,  but  he  commands  me 
to  mention  his  name  in  the  place  of  worship, 
and  there  to  ask  of  his  Majesty  all  things,  and 
not  to  use  his  name  in  vain  repetitions,  without 
meaning  and  without  cause.  Supposing  a  man 
loved  another  whose  name  is  Ahmed,  and  then 
went  around  the  streets  and  lanes  and  unclean 


102  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

places,  saying  Ahmed,  Ahmed,  Ahmed,  Ahmed, 
Ahmed, -Ahmed,  etc.,  a  thousand  times,  you  may 
be  sure  that  Ahmed  would  prosecute  him  at  law 
and  ■imprison"  him  for  having  ridiculed  him  and 
disgraced  his  name.  How  then  is  it  with  the 
name  of  God  ?  (Be  he  praised  and  exalted  !) 
Alas,  alas,  for  this  evil  habit,  in  use  among  the 
Moslems  alone.  A  Moslem  will  walk  along  the 
road  saying  'Allah,  Allah,  Allah,  Allah,  there  is 
no  God  but  Allah,  there  is  no  God  but  Allah,' 
and  this  a  thousand  times  a  day  or  more.  Now, 
since  your  excellency  has  enjoined  me  to  obey 
the  ten  commandments,  I  have  given  up  this 
wretched  practice  of  repeating  the  name  of  God 
on  all  occasions  and  in  improper  places,  for  the 
third  commandment  says,  '  Thou  shalt  not  take 
the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain  ;  for  the 
Lord  will  not  hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  his 
name  in  vain.' 

"  With  regard  to  prayer,  do  not  feel  anxiety 
on  my  account.  I  will  not  neglect  prayer  and 
supplication  to  God  (be  he  praised  and  exalted  !  ). 
At  morning  and  evening  and  noon,  when  I 
awake,  and  before  I  eat  or  sleep,  I  will  not  for- 
get to  offer  prayer  to  his  exalted  and  glorious 
Majesty,  asking  forgiveness  and  help  in  our 
work  of  preaching  and  all  our  labors.  We 
offer  thanksgiving  for  all  the  mercies  he  grants 
us    from    day    to    day.      Yes,    my    father ;    my 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  103 

motto  is,  'All  things  by  prayer  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.' 

"  Then  as  to  your  expression  '  Mohammed 
our  Lord,'  I  can  not  find  a  single  verse  in  the 
Koran  which  calls  Mohammed  (Sayyid)  lord  ; 
but  he  is  a  servant,  one  of  the  servants  of  God, 
as  we  all  are  his  servants. 

"As  to  Mohammed  being  our  intercessor,  I 
find  many  passages  in  the  Koran  which  oppose 
this  view.  Sura  33:17.  '  Who  is  he  that  will 
screen  you  from  God,  whether  he  choose  to 
bring  evil  on  you  or  to  show  you  mercy  ? ' 
Sura  49  :  8 1.  'If  thou  ask  forgiveness  for  them 
seventy  times,  God  will  by  no  means  forgive 
them.'  Sura  20  :  108.  '  No  intercession  shall 
avail  on  that  day  save  his  whom  the  Merciful 
shall  allow,  and  whose  words  he  shall  approve.' 
Sura  39  :  45.  '  Intercession  is  wholly  with 
God  '  ;  and  many  others  like  these.  We  have  it 
here  clearly  indicated  that  Mohammed  did  not 
regard  himself  as  an  agent  or  mediator  or  inter- 
cessor for  mankind  or  for  God's  people,  and,  this 
being  the  case,  would  I  not  be  regarded  as 
foolish  to  ask  his  intercession,  nay,  more,  as  silly 
and  perverse  ? 

"  You  also  ask  me  to  read  the  Koran  con- 
tinually. Do  not  feel  anxious  on  this  point.  I 
am  constantly  reading  it  and  trying  to  under- 
stand its  meaning,  and  to  find  out  which  parts 


104  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

are  abrogated  (mansukh)  and  which  verses 
abrogate  others  (nasikh).  Every  day  I  find 
strange  things  in  it  which  I  had  not  thought  of, 
and  which  probably  have  never  occurred  to  you 
or  to  my  brethren  the  Mussulmans.  May  the 
Lord  enlighten  their  hearts  and  teach  them  the 
truth  more  and  more.     Amen. 

"As  to  giving  alms,  this  I  do  in  secret  and,  as 
the  gospel  says  :  '  God  which  seeth  in  secret 
shall  reward  '  me  '  openly.'  '  But  when  thou 
doest  alms,  let  not  thy  left  hand  know  what  thy 
right  hand  doeth  :  that  thine  alms  may  be  in 
secret  :  and  thy  Father  which  seeth  in  secret 
himself  shall  reward  thee  openly.' 

"As  to  fasting,  it  is  necessary  in  times  of 
special  need.  As  to  pilgrimage  to  Beit  Allah  el 
Haram  in  Mecca,  I  am  not  just  now  able  to 
make  that  journey. 

"As  to  your  injunction  that  we  join  no  one 
with  God  as  an  object  of  worship,  I  have  learned 
from  the  first  and  second  commandments  not  to 
do  so.  God  forbid  that  I  should  worship  any- 
thing besides  God.  God  forbid  that  I  should 
say  that  '  God  is  but  one  of  three  gods.'  There 
is  no  god  but  the  one  God,  and  he  who  joins 
any  person  or  thing  with  God  is  an  infidel.  God 
forbid  that  I  should  be  an  infidel  ;  that  I  should 
join  any  other  object  of  worship  with  God  the 
Creator  of  the  heavens  and  the   earth  by  the 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  105 

word  of  his  power,  and  to  whom  alone  we 
should  offer  worship  and  adoration  now  and 
for  evermore. 

"  Now,  as  to  the  question  of  the  Trinity,  we 
would  better  leave  it  for  the  present,  as  you  can 
not  understand  this  mystery  while  in  a  state  of 
prejudice.  When  you  accept  the  truth  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  you  will  easily  com- 
prehend this  mystery.  It  is  above  our  intellects. 
Our  not  being  able  to  understand  it  does  not 
make  it  impossible  or  contrary  to  reason  and  a 
sound  mind,  nor  make  it  right  for  us  to  reject  it. 
By  no  means  ;  for  God  has  not  been  pleased  to 
reveal  to  us  his  secret  things.  If  we  have  a  right 
to  reject  it  because  we  can  not  comprehend  it,  we 
should  have  a  right  to  reject  other  things  which 
God  has  revealed  which  are  beyond  our  com- 
prehension, as,  for  instance,  the  day  of  judg- 
ment and  final  account,  God's  self-existence,  his 
eternity,  his  being  uncaused  and  the  Cause  of 
all  causes,  his  omnipresence  everywhere  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  his  omniscience,  his  creating 
the  heavens  and  the  earth  by  the  word  of  his 
power,  and  many  other  truths  like  these. 

"  The  mystery  of  the  Trinity  is  not  greater 
than  other  mysteries  of  God — be  he  exalted  ! 
God  has  a  right  to  reveal  to  us  a  truth  without 
giving  special  reasons  or  particulars,  and  we  are 
bound  to  receive  such  truth  from  him  in  humil- 


106  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

ity  and  hearty  faith,  and  we  should  receive  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  we  receive  that  of  the 
Unity,  without  attempting  to  explain  particularly 
its  mode.  I  know  that  your  excellency  finds 
this  point  very  difficult  ;  but  when  your  heart 
has  been  illumined  with  divine  light,  you  will 
understand  this  at  once  and  readily.  Do  not 
say,  '  My  son  Kamil  has  become  an  infidel.' 
God  forbid  !  But  say,  l  He  knows  the  truth 
far  more  than  before.' 

"  You  counsel  me  to  return  to  my  native 
country.  This  is  not  possible  at  present,  for  I 
am  busy  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,  sowing  his 
word  among  the  people  of  Ishmael,  even  my 
brethren  the  Moslems.  But,  if  the  Lord  will,  I 
will  return  after  a  few  years  to  see  you  and  kiss 
your  hands  with  all  filial  reverence. 

"  This  is  what  I  wish  to  lay  before  your 
excellency,  trusting  that  in  your  fatherly  kind- 
ness you  will  not  regard  my  letters  as  presump- 
tion in  your  child,  but  will  treat  me  with  your 
well-known  courtesy  and  goodness. 

"  In  order  to  attain  a  knowledge  of  the  truth 
we  must  investigate  with  great  precision,  and 
this  precision  must  be  the  greater  as  the  subject 
is  greater  which  we  examine.  There  is  no  sub- 
ject which  concerns  us  in  this  transient  life  more 
than  religion,  on  which  hang  our  happiness  and 
everlasting  life.     We  are  bound  to   search  and 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 


107 


examine  as  to  the  true  way  which  leads  to  God 
— be  he  praised  and  exalted  ! 


Southern  Arabia  Religious  Sheikh. 


'*  If,  then,  there  are  conclusive  and  convincing 
proofs  in  refutation  of  the  arguments  presented 
by  your  obedient  son,  I  am  ready  to  give  heed 


108  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

to  them  and  to  submit  to  them.  I  am  seeking 
to  know  the  true  way  which  leads  to  salvation 
from  the  wrath  of  God  ;  only  this,  and  not 
merely  to  establish  my  own  views.  My  only 
object  is  to  worship  God  in  truth  lest  I  perish 
forever,  which  may  God  forbid  ! 

"  Yes,  my  revered  father,  I  am  obedient  to 
you  in  everything  but  religion  (this  belongs  to 
God)  unless  you  prove  to  me  that  your  religion 
is  true. 

"  I  now  close  my  letter  by  kissing  your  pure 
hands   and  asking  your   good   prayers,  my  lord 
and  father  ;   may  I  not  be  bereaved  of  you. 
"  Your  obedient  son, 

"  Kamil." 

To  this  letter  the  father  sent  a  reply,  evidently 
written  by  one  of  the  learned  Moslem  sheikhs, 
full  of  venomous  bitterness,  attacking  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  using  the  well-known  arguments  of 
the  satanic  book  known  as  "  Izhar  el  Hoc."  The 
father  is  made  to  curse  Kamil  and  consign  him 
to  hell  as  an  apostate. 

On  September  15,  1 891,  Kamil  wrote  me  as 
follows  : 

After  the  usual  preface  :  '"  After  kissing 

your  pure   hands    and    asking    for   your    good 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  IO9 

prayers,  I  beg  to  inclose  a  letter  received  from 
his  excellency,  my  father,  in  answer  to  my  last 
letter  to  him.  And,  Oh,  my  dear  Doctor,  when 
I  received  this  letter  I  was  ill,  and  when  I  read 
it  I  was  filled  with  grief  and  deep  regret,  and  at 
three  o'clock  my  fever  increased  greatly  with 
severe  chills,  and  all  on  account  of  what  it 
stated  as  to  the  overwhelming  grief  and  suffering 
of  my  aged  father  on  reading  my  last  letter.  I 
had  hoped  to  rejoice  his  heart  by  that  letter  and 
to  lead  him  to  give  up  his  old  errors,  and  my 
chief  object  was  his  salvation  and  his  coming 
into  the  fold  of  our  Saviour — to  him  be  glory 
and  honor  forever  !  But  he  is  angry  with  me 
and  denounces  me  with  the  title  of  infidel  and 
other  abusive  epithets,  such  as  I  had  never 
heard  in  all  my  life.  And  he  omits  all  the 
endearing  names  and  words  which  a  loving 
father  uses  to  a  son.  You  will  see  all  this  on 
reading  the  letter,  and  I  know  that  your  tears 
will  flow  with  mine  over  the  great  sorrow  which 
has  befallen  your  son  Kamil. 

"Alas  !  what  can  I  do  to  please  my  dear  father  ? 
For  while  on  one  hand  I  am  bound  to  obey  and 
honor  him  and  go  to  him  and  comfort  him,  yet 
this  is  impossible  now,  as  I  am  busy  in  the 
vineyard  of  the  Lord,  who  is  greater  than  all.  I 
can  not  leave  my  blessed,  holy,  joyous  work  to 
which  the  Lord  Jesus   Christ,  Lord  of  the  vine- 


I  10  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

yard,  has  set  me  apart.  Oh,  my  perplexity  and 
my  sorrow  !  Qh,  thou  merciful  and  everlasting 
God,  help  me,  comfort  me,  look  upon  me,  com- 
passionate me  !  Oh,  my  Saviour,  be  gracious  to 
thy  disciple,  thy  soldier,  Kamil  ! 

"  I  beg  you,  dear  sir,  to  write  me  at  once  and 
comfort  me  with  words  from  your  own  mouth. 
Even  as  my  father  according  to  the  flesh  has 
grieved  me  as  to  my  earthly  life,  so  comfort  and 
rejoice  my  heart  as  to  my  spiritual  and  ever- 
lasting life.  I  have  good  hope  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  my  Saviour,  that  he  will  regard 
my  condition  and  guide  me  to  what  he  loves 
and  approves,  and  neither  leave  nor  forsake  me, 
as  he  has  promised. 

."  In  the  letter  above  referred  to,  the  writer 
claims  that  the  Christian  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments are  not  the  ones  referred  to  in  the  Koran, 
but  have  been  perverted  and  tampered  with  to 
suit  Christian  teachings.  I  do  not  feel  able  just 
now  to  answer  this  line  of  argument,  as  I  have 
not  access  to  the  authorities  he  refers  to,  but 
hope  to  do  so  in  the  future.  Please  read  the 
letter  and  return  it  to  me. 

"  Here  it  is  fitting  that  I  express  my  hearty 
thanks  to  his  excellency,  my  beloved  brother, 
Rev.  Mr.  Zwemer,  who,  during  my  illness  with 
fever,  came  at  once  and  visited  me  constantly, 
giving  me  medicine,  comforting  me,  and  praying 


KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH.  Ill 

for  me  on  my  bed.  He  certainly  did  everything 
in  his  power  in  favor  and  kindness.  By  the  doc- 
tor's orders  I  went  down  to  the  port  city  of 
Aden  for  a  few  days  for  a  change  of  air.  But 
my  trust  is  in  the  great  and  only  Physician. 
Praise  and  thanks  to  God,  I  have  now  regained 
my  health. 

"  To-morrow.  I  expect  to  make  a  voyage  to 
Jabuti  and  Obock,  on  the  African  coast,  with  a 
Scripture  bookseller  named  Istefanus  Mukkar,  a 
most  zealous  youth  in  the  sale  of  God's  word. 
After  our  return  I  hope  to  write  you  of  our 
journey,  if  the  Lord  spares  my  life. 

11  I  have  recently  been  reading  the  Arabic 
D'Aubigne's  '  History  of  the  Reformation/  in 
order  to  understand  the  history  of  the  early 
church.  I  am  now  reading  with  Mr.  Zwemer 
Woodbridge's  '  Theology,'  in  English,  which  was 
sent  me  as  a  gift  from  America.  After  studying 
the  subject  in  English,  I  at  once  go  over  the 
same  theme  in  Dr.  Dennis's  'Arabic  Theology.' 

"  The  Rev.  Mr. has  sent  me  from  Amer- 
ica two  English  books  on  preaching,  by  Mr. 
Spurgeon.  I  thank  all  these  friends  for  their 
kind  gifts  of  books  to  one  whom  they  have  never 
seen. 

"  Perhaps  you  would  like  to  hear  news  about 
Sana  (the  capital  of  Arabia  Felix).  The  Beda- 
win  Arabs  have  neither  first  nor  last.     They  are 


112  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

like  the  locusts.  Every  day  a  thousand  or  five 
hundred  arrive  to  join  them.  They  have  four 
thousand  muskets.  The  Turks  charge  the 
English  with  supplying  them  with  arms.  The 
natives  of  Hadeideh  send  them  arms  and  ammu- 
nition secretly.  The  Turks  had  two  thousand 
troops  and  now  have  four  thousand.  The  Beda- 
win  attacked  Sana,  fought  the  troops,  and  killed 
some  of  them  and  many  of  the  wretched  Jews. 
The  Bedawin  finally  took  three-quarters  of  the 
city  and  cut  the  telegraph  and  the  roads  to  the 
coast.  During  this  time  the  waly,  Salim  Pasha, 
died,  but  whether  by  poison  or  otherwise  is  not 
known.  The  new  Turkish  reinforcements  from 
Syria  and  Constantinople  are  camped  two  days' 
journey  from  Sana  and  do  not  venture  to  ad- 
vance. The  new  waly  is  three  days  west  of 
Sana,  and  the  Arabs  have  captured  four  hundred 
camels  laden  with  military  stores.  The  Italian 
consul  here  tells  me  that  the  war  has  continued 
two  months  and  that  multitudes  of  the  Jews 
have  emigrated  to  Jerusalem.  It  seems  to  me 
that  God  has  stirred  up  the  Bedawin  to  open  the 
way  for  the  entrance  of  his  word  and  his  disci- 
ples into  Sana. 

"  The  Turks  are  all  Pharisees,  but  there  is  not 
a  Nicodemus  among  them.  This  is  the  news 
from  Sana.  The  Lord  have  pity  on  his  servants 
there.     Amen. 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  I  1 3 

"  I  have  much  to  say  about  God's  word  in 
Aden,  but  can  not  write  more  now 

"  Since  writing  the  above  I  have  received 
yours  of  August  17th,  and  am  cheered  by  its 
good  news  of  my  fellow-Moslem  converts  ;  and 
I  rejoice  to  hear  of  the  printing  of  the  book, 
'  Sweet  First  Fruits.'  May  it  prove  a  great 
means  of  leading  our  Mohammedan  brethren  to 
peace  with  God  through  Jesus  Christ. 

"  I  hope  that  Dr.  Eddy  and  your  daughter 
have  had  a  safe  voyage.  The  Lord  preserve 
them  and  bring  them  back  in  peace. 

"  Word  has  come  from  our  dear  brother,  Rev. 
Mr.  Cantine,  in  Busrah,  that  he  will  soon  re- 
turn to  us.  May  God  bring  him  in  safety  with 
glad  news  of  the  entrance  of  the  pure  gospel 
into  that  land.  It  is  probable  that  on  his  return 
I  shall  go  with  him  and  Mr.  Zwemer  to  that 
region,  taking  a  full  supply  of  Arabic  Scriptures. 
Please  excuse  the  haste  of  this  letter,  as  I  am  to 
journey  to-morrow. 

"  Please  extend  the  most  fragrant  salaams  and 
sincere  salutations  to  Mrs.  Jessup  and  your  chil- 
dren. The  Lord  preserve  them  and  you  in 
health.  Do  not  fail  to  remember  me  in  your 
prayers.  Please  salute  for  me  Dr.  Van  Dyck, 
and  Dr.  Post,  and  Mr.  Hardin.  The  Lord  pre- 
serve them.     Amen. 

"Mr.    Zwemer,    Khawaja    Ibrahim,    and    M. 

8 


114  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

Rasheed  salute  you.  If  you  have  any  news  of 
Mr.  Van  Tassel  laboring  among  the  Bedawin 
near  Hums,  please  inform  me.  And  also  tell 
me  of  Mr.  Richmond,  who  was  studying  Arabic 
in  Mr.  Hardin's  school  in  Suk  to  go  to  Morocco. 

"  I  now  close  by  kissing  your  pure  hands  once 
and  again,  and  may  you  continue  in  health. 

"  Yours,  the  penitent  youth  confessing  his  sins, 
"  Kamil  Abdul  Messiah." 


The  Visit  to  Obock  and  Jabuti. 

"Aden,  October  14,  1891. 

"...  In  my  previous  letter  I  told  you 
of  my  father's  letter  and  my  expected  visit  to 
Obock  and  Jabuti  with  the  colporteur  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  We  returned 
to-day  from  this  blessed  journey  in  the  Lord's 
vineyard. 

"  Heeding  our  Lord's  command,  we  sailed  to 
Obock,  where  we  remained  but  one  day,  as  very 
few  of  the  people  speak  Arabic,  and  there  was 
no  place  to  sleep  or  eat,  but  we  planted  one 
Bible  there. 

"We  then  went  to  Jabuti.  This  town  is 
larger  than  Obock,  and  its  people  are  more 
numerous  and  more  courteous.  They  are 
chiefly  Arabs,  and  simple-minded.  The  Lord 
opened  the  way  for  the  preaching  of  his  cross 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  I  I  5 

and  sufferings  there,  and  helped  us.  We  hired 
a  thatched  house  and  remained  eight  days, 
planting  seventy-three  Bibles.  I  was  greatly 
pleased  with  the  visit.  It  will  yet  become  a 
large  place.  Meat  and  fish  are  abundant  and 
cheap,  and  its  water  is  more  delicious  and  sweet 
than  all  the  water  I  have  drunk  during  all  my 
stay  in  Arabia.  After  this  we  returned  to  Aden, 
and  I  hope  to  send  you  the  journal  of  the  jour- 
ney, as  there  is  much  that  is  encouraging  in  it, 
of  our  preaching  in  the  name  of  our  Saviour, 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  The  beloved  Mr.  Cantine  sent  to  the  zealous 
Mr.  Zwemer  to  come  to  el  Busrah,  and  he 
sailed  for  that  place  during  my  absence.  The 
Lord  preserve  them,  bring  them  back  safely,  and 
open  the  way  for  the  entrance  of  his  glorious 
gospel  there.  The  news  from  our  beloved 
brother  Cantine,  from  Busrah,  is  very  cheering 
as  to  the  word  of  the  Lord.  I  hope  to  tell  you 
of  it  in  detail  in  the  future. 

"  I  will  write  to  my  successors,  the  converts 
from  Islam,  in  Lebanon.  The  Lord  confirm 
*  them  in  faith,  humility,  and  zeal,  and  all  the 
Christian  graces. 

"  According  to  the  latest  news  the  Turks  have 
recaptured  Sana,  so  I  think  the  Lord  does  not 
will  at  present  to  open  the  way  there  for  his 
gospel. 


'1 1 6  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

"  On  my  return  from  Obock  I  found  the 
inclosed  letter  from  one  of  my  Mohammedan 
disciples  who  called,  and,  not  finding  me,  left 
this  note.  I  was  especially  pleased  with  his 
signature,  which  is, 

"  '  The  learner  in  the  Christian  religion, 

"  '  Ibrahim  Abdullah.' 

"  .  .  .  Mrs.  Gardner  is  very  useful  in 
Sheikh  Othman,  as  she  can  practice  medicine 
among  the  women  of  the  hareems. 

"  I  hope  soon  to  receive  the  '  Bakurah,'  or 
'  Sweet  First  Fruits,'  if  it  is  published. 

"  Do  not  fail  to  remember  me  in  your  prayers 
in  the  family  and  in  the  church. 

"Kamil." 


Proposed  Transfer  to  el  Busrah. 

"  Aden,  December  2,  1891." 

After  the  usual  salutations  : 

"  I  wish  to  inform  you  that  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Zwemer  has  returned  to  Aden  greatly  pleased 
with  el  Busrah.  He  asked  me  whether  I 
wished  to  go  there.  I  replied  '  Yes,'  and  if  God 
wills,  I  shall  sail  for  el  Busrah  in  December, 
trusting  in  the  gracious  Lord,  hoping  that  you 
will  still  pray  for  me  as  you  have  done,  and  I 
shall  ever  be  most  grateful. 

"  The  Arab  rebellion  in  Yemen  is  still  moving 


KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH.  \\J 

on  foot  and  leg.  After  the  occupation  by  the 
Turkish  troops  and  all  was  quiet,  suddenly  the 
Arabs  came  down  on  the  city  by  night,  killed 
eight  hundred  troops,  and  disappeared. 

"  In  my  opinion  the  Turkish  commander  is 
right  that  it  will  take  sixty  thousand  troops  to 
end  this  war.  Troops  are  constantly  arriving. 
The  Turkish  mushir  asked  the  Bedawin  what 
they  were  fighting  for.  They  replied,  '  We  want 
an  Arab  wali,  Arab  kadis,  and  immunity  from 
taxes  for  five  years,  and  after  that  we  will  pay 
one-half  the  tax  previously  levied.'  The  mushir 
answered,  '  Lay  down  your  arms  and  then  we 
will  discuss  the  matter.'  They  replied,  'We 
will  never  lay  down  our  arms  until  you  grant 
our  demands.'  If  the  Arabs  hold  out,  there  will 
be  heavy  fighting.  The  Lord  have  pity  on  his 
creatures. 

"  Please  renew  my  subscription  to  your 
'  Neshra '  journal,  which  I  greatly  value. 

"  My  salutations  to  you  all.  The  Lord  pre- 
serve you  by  his  providence.      Amen. 

"  Kamil  Abdul  Messiah." 

Arrival  in  el  Busrah. 
Kamil  sailed   from  Aden  for  Busrah  Decem- 
ber 10,  1 89 1,  on  the  S.  S.  "  Chyebassa,"  and  on 
his  arrival  wrote  as  follows  : 


il8  kamil  abdul  messiah. 

"  From  el  Busrah  to  our  Flowery,   Bright 
Beirut. 

"January  12,  1892. 

"To  Rev.  H.  H.  Jessup,  etc.,  etc. 

"  After  kissing  the  tips  of  your  fingers  and 
asking  for  your  righteous  prayers  and  expressing 
my  longing  for  you.  I  have  now  written  you 
several  letters  and  am  anxiously  awaiting  your 
reply.  I  pray  that  the  cause  of  the  delay  may 
be  only  good.  Through  your  counsel  and 
prayers  I  have  now  reached  el  Busrah,  where, 
if  God  wills,  I  am  to  live  in  health  and  peace. 
As  far  as  I  can  see,  it  will  be  a  favorable  place 
for  our  work  in  the  Lord's  vineyard.  I  am 
aware  that,  as  you  well  know,  there  will  be  some 
little  difficulty,  as  the  government  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  Turks,  but  we  know  and  believe  that  the 
power  of  God  can  overcome  all  power  in  heaven 
and  earth.  This  hope  will  lead  me  to  complete 
my  work  according  to  the  will  of  God,  hoping 
for  the  aid  of  your  prayers. 

"  As  it  is  the  New  Year,  I  say,  with  all  rever- 
ence and  joy,  *  A  Happy  New  Year  to  you  and  all 
your  family.  May  you  have  many  happy  returns 
of  the  day  in  health  and  peace. '  Please  accept  my 
congratulations  and  regard  me  always  as  one  of 
your  children.  And  may  God  spare  your  life. 
"  Your  obedient  son, 

"  Kamil  Abdul  Messiah." 


kamil  abdul  messiah.  i  1 9 

In  Busrah. 

"  From   el  Busrah  to  our  Flowery,  Bright 
Beirut. 

"  February  12,  1892. 

"  To  Rev.  H.  H.  Jessup,  etc.  :  I  was  greatly 
distressed  by  the  news  of  Mrs.  Jessup's  illness 
and  pray  earnestly  that  she  may  ere  this  have 
been  fully  restored  to  health.  If  you  ask  after 
my  health,  praise  to  God,  I  am  well,  and  have 
begun  to  labor  in  this  city  of  el  Busrah,  which 
the  Lord  of  the  vineyard  has  chosen  for  the  en- 
trance of  the  teaching  of  the  cross. 

"The  Lord  has  opened  the  way  for  me  for 
conversation  with  my  brethren  and  sons  of  my 
country,  the  Moslems,  for  large  numbers  of  them, 
as  well  as  of  the  Christian  sects,  come  to  me  by 
night  and  by  day,  and  I  speak  to  them  of  the 
glad  tidings  of  salvation,  as  well  and  as  wisely 
as  I  can,  according  as  the  Holy  Spirit  teaches 
me.  Some  have  asked  for  Bibles  and  Testaments 
and  we  have  supplied  them,  accompanying  them 
with  prayer  to  God  that  he  will  open  their  hearts 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  lead  them  to 
read  the  Bible  calmly  and  with  propriety,  seek- 
ing only  the  knowledge  of  the  true  religion  in 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  hope  you  will  not 
cease  to  help  us  by  prayer  for  the  good  of  my 
people. 


120 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 


"  My  father's  letters  have  ceased  coming  after 
he  wrote  that  letter  which  I  sent  you,  so  full  of 
curses  and  abuses  and  wrath.  The  Lord  guide 
him  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  hasten 
the  time  of  his  coming  into  the  fold  of  the  be- 
loved Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 


Muscat  Mission  House. 


"  But  I  have  received  a  number  of  letters  from 
my  friends  and  certain  of  the  sheikhs  and  ulema 
in  Beirut,  begging  me  to  return  to  them,  pledg- 
ing to  find  for  me  an  honorable  and  lucrative 
position.  I  wrote  them  a  reply  full  of  gratitude 
for  their  zeal  and  kindness  and  their  interest  in 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  121 

my  worldly  prosperity ;  but  informed  them  that 
God  had  given  me  sufficient  support  for  this 
world,  and  for  the  world  to  come  a  better  por- 
tion. I  told  them  it  was  not  God's  will  that  I 
should  return  to  Beirut  at  present,  nor  perhaps 
in  the  future,  but  that  I  shall  die  a  stranger  in  a 
strange  land  through  the  love  of  God  and  of  his 
Christ. 

"After  this  my  correspondence  with  them 
ceased.  I  long  for  letters  from  you.  The  Lord 
grant  me  patience  and  firm  continuance  in  his 
love  even  unto  death.     Amen. 

"  As  I  have  begun  to  write  the  history  of  my 
life  from  the  beginning  until  now,  I  ask  you  to 
send  me  the  date  of  my  reception  into  the 
Evangelical  Church.  You  can  ascertain  this  from 
my  first  letter  to  Dr.  Van  Dyck,  which  he  in- 
dorsed and  sent  to  you.  Please  also  give  me 
the  date  of  my  going  to  Lebanon  to  school  and 
especially  the  date  of  my  baptism.  Also  send 
me  the  journal  of  my  journey  to  el  Makullah 
with  our  brother  Mr.  Zwemer,  as  well  as  my 
correspondence  with  my  revered  father.  For 
all  this  I  shall  be  very  greatly  obliged  to  you. 
Salute  for  me  all  your  family,  Dr.  Van  Dyck, 
Mr.  Hardin  and  Rev.  Yusef  Bedr,  and  all  who 
ask  after  me. 

"  Mr.  Cantine  and  Mr.  Sutton,  of  Kurachee, 
send  their  regards  to  you, 


122 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 


"  Will  you  kindly  send  me  a  reply  to  these 
questions  : 

"  I.  Why  is  Jesus  styled  '  Aiesa '  in  the  Mos- 
lem books  ?  and  did  this  name  exist  among  the 
Arabs  before  Mohammed's  time,  during  the 
'  Jahiliyeh,'  or  times  of  ignorance  ? 


Muscat  Viewed  from  the  Mission  House. 


"  II.  If  drunkards  can  not  enter  the  kingdom 
of  God  (i  Cor.  6  :  10)  did  not  the  Saviour,  when 
changing  the  water  into  wine  at  the  wedding  in 
Cana,  expose  the  guests  to  the  peril  of  drunken- 
ness, and  thus  of  exclusion  from  the  kingdom  of 
God? 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  1 23 

"  III.  Were  the  '  husks  '  of  the  parable  of  the 
Prodigal  Son  identical  with  the  carob-pods  of  the 
kharrub-tree  of  Syria  ? 

"  IV.      Is   there  any  vital   difference   between 
the  Arabic  version  of  the    Bible    made   by  the 
Americans  and  that  made  by  the  Jesuits  ? 
"  Your  obedient  son  in  Christ, 

"  Kamil  Abdul  Messiah." 

In  response  to  this  letter  I  mailed  to  him  the 
letters  and  documents.  His  four  questions  indi- 
cate an  active  and  studious  mind,  and  my  replies 
were  in  substance  as  follows  : 

"  I.  The  name  '  Aiesa  '  or  '  Isa  '  is  said  by 
Baizawi  to  be  the  same  as  the  Hebrew  '  Ishua ' 
and  derived  from  Al-Ayas,  '  white  mingled  with 
red.'  The  Arabic  lexicons  say  that  it  is  an  Ara- 
bic or  Syriac  word,  which  may  have  been  formed 
by  inverting  the  order  of  the  letters  of  '  Yesua,' 
which  is  also  Hebrew,  and  thus  think  it  is  a  cor- 
ruption of  Esau. 

"  II.  Our  Lord's  miracle  at  Cana  in  no  way 
encouraged  drunkenness.  At  an  oriental  village 
wedding  hundreds  of  people  come  together. 
Wine  is  given  in  very  small  cups  or  glasses. 
Sometimes  all  the  population  of  the  village  and 
the  neighboring  villages  assemble.     To  supply 


124  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

each  one  with  a  cupful  of  wine  as  large  as  half 
an  eggshell  would  require  a  large  quantity. 
Jesus  saw  that  the  supply  was  not  large  enough 
for  the  crowd  assembled.  The  family  were  em- 
barrassed, and  exposed  to  severe  reproach  for 
failing  in  the  duties  of  hospitality.  He,  there- 
fore, turned  the  water  into  wine.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  any  one  became  intoxicated,  nor 
is  intoxication  common  at  oriental  weddings 
now,  unless  it  be  where  European  customs  have 
come  in  and  the  poisonous  arak  and  cognac 
are  used. 

'*  III.  The  husks  of  the  parable  are  the  same 
as  the  carob-  or  locust-pods  of  modern  Syria. 

"  IV.  The  Jesuit  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
Arabic  differs  very  little  from  that  of  Drs.  Eli 
Smith  and  Van  Dyck,  the  points  of  difference 
being  those  of  the  Vulgate  and  the  Textus  Re- 
ceptus  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  originals." 

In  the  letter  of  June  19,  1891,  Kamil  asks 
about  Mr.  Van  Tassell,  a  young  American  mis- 
sionary who  came  to  Syria  to  labor  among  the 
desert  tribes.  For  purely  political  reasons,  the 
Ottoman  authorities  objected  to  his  going 
among  the  Arabs,  and  virtually  expelled  him 
from  the  frontier.  Finding  that  he  could  not 
reach  the  desert  tribes,  for  whom  alone  he  was 


KAM1L    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  1 25 

sent,  he  sold  out  his  tents  and  camp  equipage 
and  returned  to  the  United  States.  Dr.  Ford 
purchased  the  waterproof  tent,  and  it  has  been 
his  summer  home  for  five  years.  For  the 
present  the  way  of  the  gospel  to  the  Bedawin 


Rescued  Slave  Boys  in  Muscat  Mission. 

Arabs  from  the  Syrian  frontier  is  closed  as 
thoroughly  as  the  local  governors  can  close  it. 
It  seems  impossible  for  the  official  class  to  be- 
lieve that  a  missionary  like  Mr.  Van  Tassell  can 
have  a  purely  spiritual  and  disinterested  object. 
They  suspect  every  "father  of  a  hat"   to  be  a 


126  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

secret  political  emissary  of  some  European 
government.  In  some  way,  if  it  is  not  in  our 
way,  and  at  some  time,  if  not  in  our  time,  the 
Lord  will  open  the  door  of  the  gospel  to  the 
millions  of  the  children  of  Ishmael. 

Kamil's  next  letter  is  from  Busrah,  March 
4,  1892,  and  indicates  no  little  apprehension  on 
his  part  of  personal  danger  from  fanatical 
Mohammedans. 

After  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  my  letter 
and  his  great  joy  at  the  recovery  of  Mrs.  Jessup 
from  illness,  he  states  that  he  had  decided  not  to 
continue  correspondence  with  his  father,  and 
asks  affectionately  about  his  friend,  the  converted 
Bedawi.  He  also  asks  for  a  copy  of  the  "  Baku- 
rah  "  as  soon  as  it  is  published,  and  intimates  that, 
should  the  enemies  of  the  gospel  interfere  with 
his  work,  he  would  return  to  Aden  and  labor 
with  Mr.  Gardner.      He  then  says  : 

"  In  any  case  I  will  not  go  contrary  to  your 
counsels,  for  I  am  your  obedient  son  in  Christ. 
If  you  bid  me  go  to  death  itself  I  shall  not 
hesitate,  and  this  your  heart  knows,  for  I  am 
faithful  to  your  bidding  as  long  as  I  live.  The 
Lord  guide  you  to  what  is  best  for  me  and  my 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  1 27 

people  and  preserve  you  and  guide  you  with  his 
eye,  for  the  sake  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Amen. 

"  Please  salute  most  affectionately  my  honored 
friends  Dr.  Van  Dyck  and  Mr.  Hardin,  and  all 
the  brethren,  especially  your  own  family. 

"  We  have  just  learned  of  the  sailing  of  a  phy- 
sician from  our  society  to  come  to  Busrah. 
The  Lord  bring  him  in  safety. 

"  Your  obedient  son  in  Christ, 

"  Kamil  Abdul  Messiah." 

Kamil's  Last  Letter. 
The   last    letter  in   my   possession    from  this 
beloved  brother  is  dated  April   22,   1892.     He 
acknowledges  gratefully  the  receipt  of  the  docu- 
ments previously  asked  for. 

He  says  :  "  I  am  trying  to  act  in  accordance 
with  your  advice  on  the  Lord's  injunction,  '  Be 
ye  wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves,'  and 
am  careful  about  my  spiritual  work,  as  the  Holy 
Spirit  teaches  me. 

"  Mr.  Zwemer  is  anxious  that  I  go  boldly  into 
the  Moslem  coffeehouses  and  streets  now,  dur- 
ing Ramadan,  and  preach  Christ  boldly.  But  I 
can  see  clearly  that  such  a  course  would  now  be 
unwise  and  might  drive  us  all  out  of  el  Busrah. 


128  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

There  is  no  religious  liberty  here  as  in  Aden.  A 
new  helper  has  come  here  from  Bagdad  and  the 
American  doctor  has  come,  but,  not  having 
visited  Constantinople  to  get  his  diploma  in- 
dorsed, he  is  helpless  and  must  now  go  there  for 
this  purpose.  I  am  writing  a  weekly  report  of 
my  religious  labors,  which  you  will  no  doubt 
receive  ;  so  I  will  not  copy  it,  as  my  time  is  fully 
occupied. 

"  Salute  Dr.  Van  Dyck,  who  bade  me,  when  I 
parted  from  him,  '  Kamil,  be  wise  as  a  fisherman 
in  your  work.'  Would  that  I  had  the  wise  eye 
of  the  fisherman  and  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent. 

"  Salute  also  Mr.  Hardin,  and  all  inquiring 
friends. 

"  Your  obedient  son, 

"  Kamil  Abdul  Messiah." 


Kamil's  Journals  in  el  Busrah. 
The  following  extracts  will  show  the  zeal  and 
fidelity  with  which  he  labored  in  season  and  out 
of  season  : 

"April    i,    1892.      As  I  was    seated    in   the 

Kahweh   (coffeehouse)  and   by   my    side    

Effendi  and  another  man,  the  former  asked  me, 
'  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  "  three  persons  in 
one  God"  ?  and  what  do  you  Christians  believe 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  I  20, 

about  it  ? '  I  explained  that  we  do  not  hold  that 
there  are  three  Gods,  as  the  Koran  claims  ;  God 
forbid  !  We  believe  that  there  is  one  God  who 
has  no  partner,  and  who  is  in  three  persons. 
The  effendi  replied,  '  This  is  a  strange  doctrine, 
and  your  believing  it  is  even  stranger,  as  it  can 
not  enter  the  mind.'  I  replied,  '  We  can  not  re- 
fuse to  believe  everything  that  does  not  enter  our 
minds.  We  must  believe  what  God  commands, 
whether  it  is  within  our  comprehension  or  not. 
Our  only  course  is  to  accept  what  God  enjoins. 
There  are  many  things  as  strange  as  the  Trinity 
which  men  of  all  religions  accept,  as  the  eternity 
of  God  and  his  omnipresence,  etc. ;  as  we  believe 
this,  we  must  believe  that,  as  God  has  thus  re- 
vealed himself.' 

"  The  same  day  three  Sunnite  Moslems  and 
two  shiahs  called,  and  one  Christian. 

"  On  April  2d  I  invited  a  Turkish  military 
officer  to  visit  me.  He  asked  a  number  of  ques- 
tions, and  at  length  he  began  to  curse  the  pope 
and  his  teachings  contrary  to  the  Bible,  and  to 
praise  the  Protestants  in  Bagdad.  He  loves  the 
New  Testament  and  asked  me  for  a  French  Tes- 
tament, which  I  gave  him,  and  he  went  away 
grateful.  During  the  day  six  Mohammedans 
and  one  Jew  called  on  me. 

"  On  the  third  day  I  was  taken  with  violent 
fever,  which  continued  until  the  seventh.  On  the 
9 


I3O  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

eighth  I  went  into  el  Busrah  to  visit  my  friends 
Saloma  and  Eliya.  Then  I  returned  and  was 
invited  by  a  friend  to  his  house,  where  a  large 
number  of  government  officials  were  assembled, 
who  were  scribes  and  Pharisees.  They  plied  me 
with  questions  such  as  how  God  could  have  a 
Son  and  how  could  the  pope  be  infallible,  etc. 
They  accepted  my  declaration  that  the  pope  is 
not  infallible ;  but  as  to  Christ's  being  the  Son 
of  God  they  met  the  words  with  cursing  and 
abuse  on  eveiy  side.  My  friend,  the  owner  of 
the  house,  rose  upon  them  and  stopped  their 
abuse.  As  I  went  out  I  shook  the  dust  from 
my  feet  as  Christ  commanded  me. 

"  April  13th.  To-day  I  was  accosted  in  the 
street  by  a  Moslem  to  whom  I  gave  a  Bible  about 
two  months  ago.  He  said,  '  I  read  that  book 
daily  with  my  hareem  and  children,  and  this  man, 
my  cousin  (sitting  by  him),  would  like  a  copy  to 
read  in  his  house.'  I  hastened  and  brought  him 
the  book,  which  he  received  gratefully,  saying, 
'We  shall  come  and  see  you  soon.'  I  replied, 
'  Ahlan  wa  sahlan,'   i.  e.f  *  Welcome  to  you.' 

"April  14th.  A  Persian  Moslem,  a  Shiite,  the 
Moolah  Hassan,  invited  me  to  a  place  filled  with 
Shiikes,  whose  chief  was  the  sayyid  Nazir  ed  Din. 
Their  object  was  to  convince  me  of  the  truth  of 
Islam,  as  they  had  heard  that  I  am  familiar  with 
the  Koran.     When  I  entered  the  sayyid  ordered 


KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH.  I3I 

me  to  be  seated,  and  said,  '  My  dear  son,  we 
have  heard  that  you  know  the  Koran  and  the 
religion  of  Islam,  and,  fearful  for  the  perdition 
of  your  soul,  we  have  invited  you  here  to  enter 
the  true  religion.'  He  then  asked,  'What  do 
you  think  of  the  Koran  ?  Is  it  true  or  not  ? ' 
I  replied,  '  The  Koran  is  the  most  elegant  and 
rhetorical  book  in  the  Arabic  language,  as  there 
are  great  books  in  other  languages,  as  the  French 
and  English  and  others.'  '  But,'  he  said,  '  I  ask 
you  is  it  God's  book  or  not  ?  '  '  This  is  a  very  im- 
portant question,'  I  replied.  *  If  I  say  it  is  of  God, 
you  will  say,  "  Why  do  you  not  believe  it?"  and 
if  I  say  it  is  not,  you  will  curse  me  ;  and  you 
know  that  I  am  not  a  Moslem  and  do  not  believe 
it.'  They  then  asked  other  questions  and  I 
answered  them.  At  last  they  said,  '  There  is  no 
profit  in  you  ;  go  to  hell.'  I  said,  '  God  knows 
which  of  us  will  go  to  Jenneh  and  which  to 
Jehennam.'  They  then  said,  '  Go  and  study  the 
Koran.'  I  returned  to  my  house,  thanking  God 
that  I  had  escaped  from  them.  Four  Moslems 
came  to  call. 

"  April  1 5th.  A  Moslem  effendi  came  and 
asked  me  for  a  Turkish  Gospel,  which  I  presented 
to  him.  Seven  Moslems  and  a  Christian  called 
on  me. 

"April  19th  To-day  I  visited  a  high  military 
officer ;   a  number  of  my  friends  were  present. 


132 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 


He  soon  asked  about  my  teaching  and  my 
pupils.  I  told  him  that  I  am  teaching  three 
Americans,  one  a  doctor  and  two  clergymen ; 
but  the  doctor  had  been  forbidden  by  the  waly 
to  practice,  as  his  diploma  is  not  visaed  by  the 
Constantinople    Medical    Board.       He    replied, 


Muscat  Women  Coming  from  Market. 


*  This  waly  does  not  know  the  difference  between 
good  and  evil.  Had  he  any  brains  he  would  not 
have  prohibited  a  man  from  doing  good.'  One 
of  those  present  remarked,  '  The  only  object  of 
these  Americans  is  not  doing  good,  but  convert- 
ing Moslems  to  the  Protestant  religion.'     The 


KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH.  1 33 

officer  said,  '  The  Protestant  religion  is  Christi- 
anity, and  these  men  force  no  one  to  accept  their 
faith.  If  any  one  wants  to  come,  they  say,  "  Ahlan 
wa  sahlan — welcome";  and  to  those  who  object 
they  offer  argument  and  proof.  If  any  of  you 
wish  to  discuss  the  matter,  here  is  Kamil.  Open 
the  debate.  If  he  convinces  you,  become  Chris- 
tians. If  you  convince  him,  he  will  become  a 
Moslem.'  I  said,  '  Agreed  ;  lam  ready  if  they 
are.'  They  replied  '  Let  the  matter  go  now 
until  another  time.' 

"  During  the  day  three  Moslems  and  a  Jew 
came  to  discuss  with  me. 

"April  2 2d.  As  I  was  passing  through  the 
Kahweh  at  evening  a  company  of  my  Moslem 
friends  accepted  my  invitation  and  came  to  my 
house  with  a  '  faqih '  [a  Mohammedan  lawyer  : 
the  term  is  still  retained  in  Spanish  as  alfaqui. 
Hughes'  "  Diet,  of  Islam  "] .  The  discussion  was 
as  to  whether  Islam  is  a  true  religion,  and  their 
difficulties  about  the  Trinity.  They  asked  and  I 
answered,  and  then  I  asked  and  they  replied. 
Finally,  on  rising  to  take  leave,  they  all  prayed 
that  Allah  would  enlighten  my  heart.  And  I 
also,  after  their  departure,  prayed  to  God  to  en- 
lighten their  minds  and  hearts  that  they  might 
understand  all  they  had  heard. 

"  Five  Moslems  and  two  Christians  called. 

"April  23d.      Four  Roman   Catholics  called 


134  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

and  asked  why  we  do  not  pray  to  Mary  and  rev- 
erence the  pope  and  the  priests  and  angels  and 
others.  I  told  them  that  I  honored  Mary  more 
than  they  did ;  but  as  to  the  pope,  I  had  no  re- 
spect for  him, on  account  of  his  arrogant  conceit, 
but  if  he  had  the  spirit  and  did  the  works  of  an 
apostle  I  would  love  him  and  honor  him  ;  and  as 
to  the  priests,  I  would  never  ask  one  of  them  to 
forgive  my  sins,  as  they  need  to  have  their  own 
sins  forgiven.  In  all  our  talk  the  greatest  in- 
dignation of  these  Romanists  was  at  my  not  lik- 
ing the  pope. 

"  April  24th  to  30th.  I  had  conversation 
with  thirty-seven  Moslems,  five  Christians,  and 
two  Jews.  On  the  28th  was  ■  Aieed  el  Futr' 
for  both  Sunnite  and  Shiah  Moslems.  I  was 
unwell,  and  eleven  Moslems  and  three  Chris- 
tians and  one  Jew  came  to  see  me.  The 
next  day  I  called  upon  eleven  Mohamme- 
dan houses  and  we  had  discussions  in  three  of 
them." 

[Aieed  el  Futr  is  the  great  Moslem  feast  at 
the  close  of  the  Ramadan  month  of  fasting,  when 
all  the  Mohammedans  spend  three  days  in  visit- 
ing and  feasting.  It  is  a  time  of  rejoicing,  when 
young  and  old  in  new  and  bright-colored  cloth- 
ing give  themselves  up  to  festivity.     It  answers 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  1 35 

to  the  Christian  Easter  Monday  or  the  American 
Fourth  of  July.] 

"  During  the  week  ending  May  2 2d  I  had 
visits  from  twenty-three  Moslems,  five  Christians, 
and  one  Jew,  and  sold  two  Bibles. 

"  May  22d  to  28th.  This  week  thirteen 
Moslems  and  five  Christians  called  on  me.  On 
the  28th  I  went  at  12  o'clock  with  my  brother, 
Mr.  Zwemer,  to  Majil.  On  our  arrival  the  whole 
population,  great  and  small,  gathered  around  us, 
welcoming  Mr.  Zwemer  and  asking  after  his 
health  with  the  greatest  kindness  and  with  smil- 
ing faces,  as  they  had  known  him  before.  We 
then  went  with  the  crowd  to  the  shade  of  a  tree, 
where  the  multitude  sat  thirsting  to  hear  the 
word  of  God.  Mr.  Zwemer  then  began  to  speak 
with  great  boldness  on  God's  love  to  mankind, 
ending  with  that  great  verse  which  speaks  of  the 
greatness  of  God's  love :  *  God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life.'  They  made  some 
objections  and  asked  some  questions,  all  of  which 
he  answered  with  love  and  gentleness  and  cour- 
tesy. I  helped  in  answering  some  of  the  ques- 
tions and  they  listened  with  eager  interest. 
We  then  read  several  chapters  from  the  Bible, 
from  which  also  one  of  the  boys  read  to  them ; 


I36  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

and  as  we  had  several  copies  of  the  Scriptures 
we  gave  them  to  those  who  could  read,  and 
they  began  to  read,  so  that  the  company  soon 
became  like  a  great  Sunday-school  or  church  of 
forty  or  fifty  members.  As  they  read,  Mr. 
Zwemer  would  ask  them,  '  Is  this  true  ?     Is  this 


Mountain  Pass  in  Oman. 

true?'  And  do  you  suppose  that  they  said 
'No'?  Not  at  all,  but  '  Yes,  this  is  true.' 
Mr.  Zwemer  then  explained  in  clear  and  simple 
language  that  we  all  are  sinners  in  the  sight  of 
God,  and  that  '  without  shedding  of  blood  there 
is  no  remission,'     He  then  told  them  that  the 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  1 37 

blood  of  Christ,  shed  on  the  '  wood  of  the  cross,' 
is  the  only  means  to  atone  for  our  sin. 

"  It  was  a  happy  time  to  us,  and  the  Spirit  of 
God  helped  us  mightily.  At  last  Mr.  Zwemer 
asked  them,  '  Is  what  you  have  heard  true  ? ' 
They  said,  'Some  things  are  true,  and  other 
things  are  true  but  we  do  not  believe  them/ 
He  replied,  'Think  over  all  you  have  heard.' 

"  At  evening  we  bade  them  farewell  and  they 
accompanied  us  to  the  water,  and  we  came  home 
with  great  joy,  crying  unto  God  that  he  would 
cause  his  word  to  grow  there  and  bring  forth 
fruit  meet  for  repentance." 

Mr.  Zwemer,  in  speaking  of  this  visit,  says, 
"  For  fully  three  and  a  half  hours  Kamil  argued 
and  reasoned  with  them  from  the  Scriptures. 
We  had  prayer  with  the  Moslems  before  we 
left." 

Kamil's  Death. 

The  sudden  death  of  this  gifted  and  godly 
young  disciple  was  one  of  those  bitter  trials 
which  can  only  be  relieved  by  reference  to  the 
unerring  wisdom  of  God,  who  doeth  all  things 
well. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  those  associated  with  him 
that  he  was  poisoned,  but  the  hostility  of  the 


I38  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

government,  the  fact  that  he  was  buried  in  the 
Moslem  cemetery,  and  that  no  postmortem 
would  have  been  allowed  make  it  impossible  to 
obtain  positive  proof. 

The  sad  facts  are  as  follows  : 

On  Friday,  June  24,  1892,  Kamil  died.  Early 
in  the  morning  Mr.  Zwemer  was  called  to  con- 
duct the  funeral  of  the  carpenter  on  board  a 
foreign  steamer.  Owing  to  the  extreme  heat 
he  did  not  call  on  Kamil  before  going  home  to 
breakfast.  Mr.  Can  tine  called  on  Kamil  in  the 
morning  and  found  him  suffering  with  symptoms 
of  bowel  disorder,  violent  vomiting  and  purg- 
ing. Dr.  Riggs,  who  was  himself  sick,  sent 
him  medicine  by  a  servant.  The  heat  was 
intense,  and  many  of  the  people  were  prostrated 
with  fevers.  Kamil  lived  near  the  harbor,  and 
the  missionaries  nearly  two  miles  distant  in  the 
native  quarter.  At  five  o'clock  p.  m.  Mr. 
Zwemer  went  to  call  on  him  and  help  him. 
Yakoob  Yohanna,  a  Christian  native,  met  him 
half  way  and  told  him  of  Kamil's  death.  He 
hastened  to  the  house,  and  found  it  occupied 
by  Turkish  soldiers,  mullahs,  and  people  who 
had  seized  his  papers,  sealed  up  his  room,  and 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 


139 


were  busy  with  Moslem  prayers  over  his  body. 
They  protested  that  he  was  a  Moslem.  Mr. 
Zwemer  insisted  that  he  was  a  Christian,  and 
begged  and  entreated  that  he  should  be  buried 
with    Christian    burial.       The    evidence    of    his 


Rev.  S.  M.  Zwemer  and  Mrs.  Zwemer— Bahrein. 


Christian  faith  was  among  the  papers  they  had 
seized.  But  it  was  vain  to  resist  this  very  ex- 
ceptional display  of  armed  force. 

Mr.  Zwemer  left  the  body  and  went  to  the 
Turkish  waly,  and  to  appeal  to  the  British 
consul.      Meantime    Mr.    Cantine    arrived,    and 


I4O  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

Mr.  Zwemer  had  to  hasten  away  on  receipt  of  a 
note  stating  that  Dr.  Riggs  was  very  ill,  and 
with  high  temperature. 

At  10.30  p.  m.  Mr.  Cantine  came  with  the 
news  that  the  Moslems,  in  spite  of  his  protest, 
had  performed  their  funeral  rites  and  buried 
Kamil.  But  the  seal  of  the  British  consul  was 
added  to  that  of  the  Turks  on  the  room  con- 
taining his  property.  The  next  day  the  whole 
town  was  talking  over  the  event.  Many  of  the 
Moslems  told  the  missionaries  that  they  knew 
Kamil  to  be  a  Christian  and  a  man  of  pure  and 
upright  life,  that  he  was  converted  from  Islam, 
and  a  preacher  of  Christianity. 

The  exact  spot  where  the  Moslems  buried 
him  could  never  be  found.  The  consulate  did 
not  succeed  in  securing  his  little  property,  but 
his  books  and  papers  were  afterwards  sold  at 
auction,  excepting  the  few  claimed  by  the  mis- 
sionaries as  their  personal  property. 

The  evidence  of  foul  play  in  his  death  is 
regarded  as  very  strong  : 

I.  He  was  a  young  man  of  strong  physique 
and  had  not  been  long  unwell. 

II.  Had  he  died  from  ordinary  disease  none 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  Izj.1 

but  his  companions  would  have  known  it,  and 
the  missionaries  would  have  been  told  of  it  be- 
fore any  one  else. 

III.  It  is  regarded  as  impossible  that  the 
Turks  and  mullahs  could  have  prepared  his 
body  for  burial,  sealed  all  his  property,  and  had 
the  military  police  agree  to  oppose  any  help  or 
interference  on  the  part  of  the  missionaries,  in 
so  short  a  time  as  that  which  intervened  be- 
tween his  death  and  their  arrival.  The  washing 
and  enshrouding  of  the  body  according  to 
Moslem  custom  is  a  long  and  elaborate  cere- 
mony, and  the  sheikhs  and  mullahs  must  repeat 
the  "  Kalimet  esh  Shehadad,"  or  word  of  wit- 
ness, "  There  is  no  deity  but  Allah,  and  Mo- 
hammed is  his  apostle,"  at  every  ablution,  and 
three  times  after  the  washing,  when  three  pots  of 
camphor  and  water  are  poured  over  the  body. 

The  following  are  two  of  the  prayers  recited 
by  Moslems  at  a  funeral  : 

14  God  is  Great. 

Holiness  to  thee,  oh  God, 
And  to  thee  be  praise. 
Great  is  thy  Name. 
Great  is  thy  greatness. 
Great  is  thy  praise. 
There  is  no  deity  but  thee." 


142  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

"  O  God,  forgive  our  living  and  our  dead, 
and  those  of  us  who  are  present  and  those 
who  are  absent,  and  our  children  and  our  full- 
grown  persons,  our  men  and  our  women.  O 
God,  those  whom  thou  dost  keep  alive  amongst 
us  keep  alive  in  Islam,  and  those  whom  thou 
causest  to  die  let  them  die  in  the  faith." 

Those  who  place  the  corpse  in  the  grave 
repeat  the  following  sentence  : 

"  We  commit  thee  to  earth  in  the  name  of 
God  and  in  the  religion  of  the  prophet." 

IV.  Government  officials  were  on  hand  to 
take  possession  of  all  his  effects  and  seal  up  his 
room  before  his  Christian  brethren  could  arrive. 

There  is  every  indication  that  poison  had  been 
given  him  by  some  unknown  persons,  either  in 
coffee,  the  usual  eastern  way  of  giving  it,  or  as 
medicine. 

V.  The  burial  took  place  in  the  evening  and 
the  place  of  interment  was  concealed. 

VI.  According  to  the  Moslem  law,  "  a  male 
apQstate  (murtadd)  is  liable  to  be  put  to  death, 
if  he  continue  obstinate  in  his  error.  If  a  boy 
under  age   apostatize,   he    is   not  to  be  put  to 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  1 43 

death,  but  to  be  imprisoned  until  he  come  to  full 
age,  when,  if  he  continue  in  the  state  of  unbelief, 
he  must  be  put  to  death."  According  to  Dr. 
Hughes,  quoting  from  the  book  "  Sahih  ul  Buk- 
hari,"  "  Ikrimah  relates  that  some  apostates 
were  brought  to  the  Khalifa  Ali,  and  he  burnt 
them  alive ;  but  Ibn  Abbas  heard  of  it  and  said 
that  the  Khalifa  had  not  acted  rightly,  for  the 
prophets  had  said,  "  Punish  not  with  God's  pun- 
ishment (#.  e.,  fire),  but  whosoever  changes  his 
religion,  kill  him  with  the  sword." 

VII.  Kamil's  own  father  once  wrote  him  vir- 
tually threatening  to  kill  him  as  an  apostate. 

In  these  days  the  sword  is  not  generally  used 
to  dispose  of  apostates  from  the  faith.  Strych- 
nine or  corrosive  sublimate  are  more  convenient, 
and  less  apt  to  awaken  public  notice,  especially 
where  an  autopsy  would  not  be  allowed. 

It  may  be  that  Kamil's  father  used  the  lan- 
guage simply  for  intimidation,  for  I  can  hardly 
believe  him  to  be  so  utterly  devoid  of  natural 
affection  ;  but  religious  fanaticism,  whether  orig- 
inating in  Arabia  or  in  Rome,  seems  to  override 
all  laws  of  human  affection  or  tenderness. 

The  Lord  himself,  the  chief  Shepherd,  knows 


144  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

whether  his  loving  child  Kamil  is  worthy  of  a 
martyr's  crown.  We  know  that  he  was  faithful 
unto  death.  He  fought  the  good  fight,  he  kept 
the  faith,  he  finished  his  course.  His  life  has 
proved  that  the  purest  and  most  unsullied 
flowers  of  grace  in  character  may  grow  even  in 
the  atmosphere  of  unchristian  social  life.  It 
mattered  not  to  him  who  buried  him  or  where 
he  was  buried.  He  was  safe  beyond  the  reach 
of  persecution  and  harm. 

I  have  rarely  met  a  more  pure  and  thor- 
oughly sincere  character,  sine  ccra.  From  the 
beginning  of  our  acquaintance  in  "  our  flowery 
bright  Beirut,"  to  his  last  days  on  the  banks  of 
the  Tigris,  he  was  a  model  of  a  humble,  cheer- 
ful, courteous,  Christian  gentleman. 

Kamil's  histoiy  is  a  rebuke  to  our  unbelief  in 
God's  willingness  and  power  to  lead  Mohamme- 
dans into  a  hearty  acceptance  of  Christ  and  his 
atoning  sacrifice. 

We  are  apt  to  be  discouraged  by  the  closely 
riveted  and  intense  intellectual  aversion  of  these  i 
millions    of   Moslems    to    the    doctrines  of  the 
Trinity  and  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ.      But 
Kamil's  intellectual  difficulties  about  the  Trinity 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  I45 

vanished  when  he  felt  the  need  of  a  divine 
Saviour.  He  seemed  taught  by  the  Spirit  of 
God  from  the  first.  He  exclaimed  frequently  at 
the  wonderful  scheme  of  redemption  through 
the  atoning  work  of  Christ. 

"  El  fida,  el  fida,"  "  redemption  "  he  once 
said  to  me,  "  redemption,  how  wonderful  !  I 
now  see  how  God  can  be  just  and  justify  the 
sinner.  We  have  nothing  of  this  in  Islam.  We 
talk  of  God's  mercy,  but  we  can  not  see  how  his 
justice  is  to  be  satisfied."  What  the  Moham- 
medan needs  above  all  things  is  a  sense  of  sin, 
of  personal  sin,  and  of  his  need  of  a  Saviour. 

According  to  Islam,  a  man  obtains  salvation 
by  a  recital  of  the  "  Kalimah"  or  creed,  but  if 
he  be  an  evil-doer  he  will  suffer  the  pains  of  a 
purgatorial  fire  until  his  sins  are  atoned  for. 

The  two  words  in  the  Koran  which  express 
the  doctrine  of  expiation  are,  first,  "  Kaffarah," 
(Sura  5  :  49)  :  "And  therein  (Ex.  21  :  23)  have 
we  enacted  for  them  '  Life  for  life,  an  eye  for 
eye  and  nose  for  nose  and  ear  for  ear  and  tooth 
for  tooth,  and  for  wounds  retaliation '  ;  whoso 
shall  compromise  it  as  alms  shall  have  therein 
the  expiation  of  his  sin."  "The  expiation  of  a 
10 


I46  KAMIL   ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

mistaken  word  in  your  oaths  shall  be  to  feed  ten 
poor  persons,"  etc.  (Sura  5  :gi).  And,  second, 
"  Fidyah  "  (Sura  2:180):  "Those  who  are  fit 
to  fast  and  do  not,  the  expiation  of  this  shall  be 
the  maintenance  of  a  poor  man."  Whosoever 
is  sick  and  can  not  make  the  pilgrimage  to 
Mecca  "  must  expiate  by  fasting  or  alms  or  an 
offering."  In  Moslem  theology  the  term  "  kaf- 
faratu'z  zunub,"  "the  atonement  for  sins,"  is 
used  for  the  duties  of  prayer,  fasting,  almsgiving, 
and  pilgrimage.  The  visiting  of  shrines  of  the 
saints  is  also  an  atonement  for  sins.  "  Ziyaratu- 
'1-kubur  "  is  "  kaffaratu-z-zunub."  In  all  these 
cases  expiation  is  man's  act,  one  of  the  merito- 
rious acts  of  a  religion  of  works. 

Sacrifices  are  common  among  Moslems  on  the 
great  feast  of  "El  Azha"  ,  and  on  the  birth  of  a 
child,  "Aquiqah."  But  in  none  of  these  is  there 
any  expiatory  character.  .  Mohammedanism 
ignores  the  doctrine  that  "  without  shedding  of 
blood  is  no  remission."  (Lev.  17  :  11  ;  Heb. 
9  :  22.)  It  knows  no  offering  for  sin.  Its  numer- 
ous formal  prayers,  its  fast,  pilgrimage,  and  alms- 
giving, satisfy  the  conscience  with  the  idea  of  the 
efficacy  of  human  merit. 


KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH.  1 47 

But  a  sense  of  personal  demerit,  a  conviction 
of  sin  before  a  just  and  holy  God,  reveals  the 
emptiness  of  these  outward  works,  and  drives 
the  sinner  to  seek  a  Saviour.  Kamil  felt  this 
deeply  and  expressed  it  in  his  prayers  and  his 
conversation.  Arguments  on  the  divinity  of 
Christ  will  avail  little  with  a  man  who  does  not 
feel  the  need  of  a  divine  redeemer.  And  when 
he  feels  this  need  he  does  not  need  the  argu- 
ments. "  An  incarnation  in  order  to  redemp- 
tion "  is  the  foundation  of  Christian  theology. 
If  we  feel  our  need  of  a  redeemer,  we  can  not  be 
satisfied  with  any  less  person  than  God  incar- 
nate. Let  us  remember  this  in  laboring  for 
Mohammedans.  They  need  to  feel  the  enormity 
of  sin  against  a  just  and  holy  God.  They  need 
no  new  gospel,  but  the  old,  old  story,  told  in 
the  old,  old  way. 

In  May,  1868,  I  visited  Williams'  book  store, 
in  Boston,  in  company  with  that  noble  Christian 
lady,  Mrs.  Walter  Baker.  On  entering,  she  in- 
troduced me  to  her  old  friend,  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  as  "a  missionary  to  Syria."  He  was 
most  affable  and  cordial,  and  asked  me  about  the 
country  and  people,  and  at  length  said,  u  How 


I48  KAMIL    ABDUL    MESSIAH. 

do  you  preach  to  those  Mohammedans  ?  do  you 
teach  the  orthodox  theology?"  I  replied, 
"  We  preach  to  them  the  same  gospel  that  we 
would  preach  to  any  other  poor  sinners — that 
man  is  a  sinner  against  a  just  and  holy  God  and 
needs  a  divine  Saviour.  They  need  the  same 
salvation  that  we  do."  He  then  stepped  to  the 
book  shelves,  and  taking  down  a  copy  of  his 
work,  "  Elsie  Venner,"  presented  it  to  me,  say- 
ing, "This  is  my  theology."  I  turned  to  the 
counter,  and  taking  up  a  Bible,  replied,  "And 
this  is  my  theology."  "What!"  said  he,  "do 
you  mean  to  say  that  you  accept  that  whole 
Bible,  from  Genesis  to  Revelation,  and  believe  it 
all  ?  "  "  Certainly,"  said  I,  "  with  all  my  heart." 
He  stepped  back  and  surveyed  me  intently  from 
head  to  foot,  and  then  said,  with  a  smile  to  Mrs. 
Baker,  "  Well,  it  is  refreshing  to  see  a  man  who 
believes  something." 

And  it  is  refreshing  to  have  such  a  Bible  and 
such  a  gospel  to  believe.  It  meets  our  highest 
and  our  deepest  wants,  the  exacting  cravings  of 
our  nature.  We  must  have  a  Saviour,  and  we 
can  not  rest  in  any  one  short  of  a  divine  Saviour, 
the  incarnate  Son  of  God. 


APPENDIX. 


THE  ARABIAN  MISSION. 

This  mission,  with  which  Kamil  was  connected 
until  the  day  of  his  death,  originated  in  the  New 
Brunswick  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  in  America.  It  was  organized  in 
1889  on  an  undenominational  basis,  because  the 
Foreign  Board  did  not  feel  equal  to  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  care  of  the  mission  in  addition  to 
the  growing  needs  of  their  other  mission  fields. 
In  1894,  however,  the  mission  was  adopted  by 
the  Reformed  Church,  although  retaining  its 
separate  financial  status. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  give  the  brief  history 
of  the  progress  of  this  mission  in  the  face  of 
many  obstacles  and  difficulties  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  but  a  short  statement  of  the  present  con- 
dition and  work  of  the  mission  in  the  field  will 
show  what  God  hath  wrought. 

The  mission  at  present  occupies  eastern  Arabia 
on  the  coast  with  three  stations  and  two  out- 
stations.  Busrah  vilayet  on  the  north  has  an 
149 


1 50  APPENDIX. 

area  of  fifty  thousand  square  miles,  about  the 
size  of  New  York  State,  and  a  population  of 
seven  hundred  thousand.  The  Bahrein  islands 
with  the  adjacent  coast  have  a  population  of 
about  three  hundred  thousand,  and  Oman,  with 
Muscat  as  chief  city,  five  hundred  thousand. 
Work  was  begun  at  Busrah  in  1891,  Bahrein, 
1892,  Muscat,  1893.  Amara,  on  the  Tigris, 
north  of  Busrah,  was  occupied  as  an  out- 
station  in  1895  and  this  year  work  was  aus- 
piciously begun  at  Nasariyeh  on  the  Euphrates, 
near  the  site  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees. 

When  a  large  building  is  not  yet  in  process  of 
construction,  and  the  foundations  only  are  being 
laid,  the  plan  of  the  architect  can  best  be  seen 
from  the  model,  and  not  amid  the  diggings  and 
stone-breaking  and  loose  material.  How  much 
more  is  this  true  when  the  great  Architect  is 
laying  the  foundations  for  his  spiritual  temple  in 
eastern  Arabia?  When  two  of  us  came  to  the 
peninsula  five  years  ago  we  were  permitted  to 
stretch  the  measuring  line  from  corner  to  corner, 
and  on  our  knees  study  God's  plan  for  the  build- 
ing. Since  then  we  have  received,  once  and 
again,  reinforcements,  but  even  now  the  founda- 
tions are  only  beginning  to  be  laid,  and  there  is 
so  much  rubbish  about  that  it  is  hard  to  see 
much  progress  from  year  to  year  in  the  super- 
structure.    While  other  missions  can  speak  of 


THE    ARABIAN    MISSION.  I  5  I 

harvest  time,  and  give  statistics  of  churches, 
schools,  and  baptisms,  we  are  yet  in  the  midst 
of  early  sowing,  and  the  statistics  we  can  give  all 
refer  to  the  seedtime  of  the  spoken  and  printed 
word. 

From  each  station  as  a  center,  and  from  the 
northernmost  limit  of  the  Busrah  vilayet,  for 
more  than  a  thousand  miles  along  the  coast  of 
Arabia  to  Ras  el-Had,  our  colporteurs  offer 
God's  word  to  all  who  will  receive  it,  and  speak 
with  all  who  will  hear.  They  are  the  real  pio- 
neer evangelists,  and  their  work  breaks  down 
prejudice  and  opens  the  way  for  work  of  all  kinds 
in  the  future.  Six  colporteurs  were  employed 
for  a  whole  or  part  of  the  year,  and  the  five 
bookshops  were  open  for  twelve  months  with- 
out intermission.  At  Busrah  a  small  circulat- 
ing library  for  English-reading  natives  was  started 
in  connection  with  the  Bible  Depot,  and  the 
stock  of  Arabic  and  English  educational  books 
is  growing  larger.  Our  prime  object  is,  of 
course,  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures.  To  this 
end  our  mission  receives  aid  from  the  American 
Bible  Society  for  Bahrein  and  Muscat,  and  from 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  for  Bus- 
rah and  Amara ;  and  it  has  only  been  from  lack 
of  missionaries  to  accompany  the  colporteurs, 
and  so  extend  their  journeys  into  new  territory, 
that  the  annual  circulation  has  not  still  more 


152  APPENDIX. 

increased.  As  it  is,  the  number  of  portions  of 
the  Bible  sold  this  year  is  five  hundred  more 
than  last  year.  Of  these  sales  eighty-seven  per 
cent,  were  made  to  Moslems. 

The  religious  books  include  the  recent  contro- 
versial Arabic  and  Persian  literature,  the  stand- 
ard Christian  classics  and  many  by  Spurgeon, 
Moody,  and  others  from  the  Beirut  press. 
Our  educational  books  are  often  the  bait  on  tire 
hook  of  the  shopkeeper  in  fishing  for  men,  and 
yet  more  often  even  a  geography  or  primer  will 
so  break  through  prejudice  that  the  Moslem  lad 
who  has  bought  and  read  either,  comes  again  and 
again  to  the  Christian  bookshop.  In  all  our 
shops  the  walls  themselves  witness  to  Christ  the 
Son  of  God,  and  no  one  can  enter  them  and 
remain  ignorant  of  our  message. 

It  is  especially  encouraging  to  note  that  the 
sale  of  complete  Bibles  and  Testaments  is  on  the 
increase  where  earlier  sales  of  smaller  portions 
have  prepared  the  way.  The  following  table 
shows  the  totals  and  increase  of  Scripture  sales 
for  five  years  in  eastern  Arabia : 

Total  Sales  Scriptures — Arabian  Mission. 

1893  1894  1895  1896 

825  1760  2313  2805 

Almost  identified  with  our  Bible  work  is  that 


THE    ARABIAN    MISSION.  I  53 

of  preaching  the  gospel  in  regions  beyond  our 
three  stations  by  journeys  on  sea  and  land. 
From  Busrah,  north  and  south,  the  rivers  are 
the  great,  cheap,  and  safe  highways  of  travel. 
The  long  journey  up  the  Tigris  to  Koot,  across 
the  plain  of  the  Shatt  el  Hai,  at  Nasariyeh,  is 
made  twice  a. year.  Between  our  three  stations 
steamers  ply  the  gulf  and  we  try  to  make  each 
journey  a  missionary  tour.  The  importance  of 
itineration  in  a  pioneer  field  can  not  easily  be 
exaggerated.  Even  as  Kamil  preached  the 
word  on  the  south  coast,  his  successors,  our 
colporteurs,  recently  visited  the  eastern  pirate 
coast  south  of  Bahrein  and  left  behind  them  a 
hundred  and  one  books  among  Arabs  who  for- 
merly made  the  whole  coast  unsafe,  but  have 
now  settled  down  to  fishing  and  commerce.  In 
Oman  the  Rev.  P.  J.  Zwemer  has  penetrated 
far  into  the  interior  and  found  the  whole  moun- 
tain region  fertile,  populous,  and  accessible. 
The  people,  too,  were  agricultural  and  not 
nomadic,  and  many  of  them  could  read.  On 
two  occasions  the  highlands  of  Yemen  were 
visited,  and  evangelistic  work  was  attempted 
among  the  large  Jewish  population  of  Sanaa. 
Kateef  and  Hassa  with  its  old  capital,  Hof  hoof, 
also  heard  for  the  first  time  the  word  of  life 
from  missionary  lips. 

From  the  outset  medical  mission  work  has 


154  APPENDIX. 

proved  a  very  efficient  adjunct  to  our  work  of 
evangelization.  Dr.  Riggs  left  the  mission  field 
shortly  after  Kamil's  death,  and  his  successor 
failed  in  health.  But  our  present  medical  mis- 
sionary, Dr.  H.  R.  L.  Worrall,  has  regained  lost 
ground  and  the  work  is  growing.  The  dispen- 
sary at  Busrah  is  a  daily  pulpit  where  we  enjoy 
every  freedom  to  preach  Christ.  Here  either  a 
missionary  or  a  colporteur  reads  the  Scriptures 
and  prays  with  the  patients,  tracts  and  leaflets 
are  distributed,  and  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  is 
acted  out  before  the  eyes  of  the  dullest  Arab  in 
a  way  that  can  not  be  misunderstood.  Last  year 
the  total  number  of  cases  was  4345. 

By  ministering  to  their  bodies  at  the  dispen- 
saries in  Busrah  and  Bahrein,  by  visiting  vil- 
lages and  huts,  by  reading  the  gospel,  by  teach- 
ing morals,  Mrs.  Zwemer  has  inaugurated  a 
hopeful  work  for  our  Arabian  sisters.  Nowhere 
and  at  no  time  since  coming  to  our  mission  was 
she  subjected  to  any  annoyance  or  rudeness  from 
the  Arabs,  although  many  had  never  before  seen 
a  white  woman.  And  it  has  been  abundantly 
demonstrated  through  her  journeys  and  experi- 
ences that  the  door  for  such  work  is  widely  open 
and  may  prove  of  untold  blessing  if  others,  like 
minded,  come  out  to  join  her  in  the  work  for 
Arabia. 

In  the  earliest  printed  plan  of  the  Arabian  mis- 


THE    ARABIAN    MISSION.  I  55 

sion  there  was  reference  to  work  for  slaves,  and 
because  Oman  is  the  home  of  the  African  slave- 
dealer,  Mackay,  of  Uganda,  pleaded  for  an  Arab 
mission.  It  was  only  another  link  in  the  plan 
of  God's  providence,  therefore,  that  on  May 
27,  1896,  Mr.  P.  J.  Zwemer  felt  called  to  re- 
ceive and  care  for  eighteen  rescued  slaves  in  ad- 
dition to  his  other  work  at  Muscat.  Although 
the* experiment  is  not  yet  completed,  the  results 
so  far  are  most  gratifying,  and  the  boys  are  mak- 
ing excellent  progress  in  morals  and  education. 
Immediately  after  they  came  they  were  put  into 
manual  training,  making  baskets,  sewing,  and 
housework.  Being  ignorant  of  any  language 
but  Swaheli,  it  was  thought  best  that  they  be 
taught  English  first.  After  primary  instruction 
by  means  of  charts,  they  showed  enough  mental 
capacity  to  warrant  the  expense  of  a  teacher ; 
and  S.  M.  David,  an  Indian  Christian,  formerly 
a  teacher  in  the  C.  M.  S.  Freed-Slave  School  at 
Nasik,  India,  came  to  Muscat  on  September 
1 5th.  All  the  boys  have  since  made  such  rapid 
progress  in  the  three  Rs  that  they  are  almost 
prepared  for  the  first  Indian  standard.  The 
health  of  all  the  lads  has  been  good  with  one 
exception,  and  they  are  apparently  perfectly  at 
home  in  the  Muscat  climate.  Instruction  is 
given  them  from  the  Bible  and  by  means  of  a  sim- 
ple catechism  ;  their  moral  sense  is  growing,  and 


1 56  APPENDIX. 

many  of  them  begin  to  realize  the  opportunity 
of  the  new  life  open  before  them.  The  boys  are 
also  learning  to  assist  in  printing  with  a  small 
hand  press  Christian  literature  for  the  Arabs.  It 
is  the  day  of  small  things,  but  the  first  Arabic 
leaflet  sent  from  this  press  has  already  made  a 
stir  among  the  dead  bones  and  awakened 
thought  as  well  as  hostility. 

Such  is  a  brief  sketch  of  the  present  work  of 
the  Arabian  mission  and  its  methods.  Further 
information  can  be  obtained  from  its  secretary, 
Rev.  H.  N.  Cobb,  D.  D.,  25  E.  22d  Street,  New 
York  City.  Arabia  pleads  loudly  for  more  mis- 
sionaries. The  country  is  accessible  nearly 
everywhere,  and  the  people  are  willing  to  hear 
the  word.  Only  a  small  part  of  the  peninsula 
is  under  Turkish  rule,  and  more  and  more  God's 
providence  is  calling  to  the  great  task  of  evan- 
gelizing the  Mohammedan  world.  May  the 
story  of  Kamil's  life  stir  many  to  a  like  conse- 
cration and  devotion  for  the  honor  of  our 
Saviour  and  to  bring  back  to  the  fold  of  Christ 
the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Ishmael. 

S.  M.  Zwemer. 


'„ 


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